PUNCH-DRUNK
LOVE ****
By GUY FLATLEY
CAST: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman, Mary Lynn Rajskub
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Paul
Thomas Anderson
 A
sexually adventurous, career-obsessed, thirtysomething American
male he's not. In truth, Barry, who peddles bathroom appliances
in a surreal warehouse, is probably the oldest virgin in all of
San Fernando Valley. When any one of his seven sisters tries to
bully him into hooking up with some nice girl, his response is apt
to be polite but evasive. Except on those occasions when, from out
of nowhere, he explodes with fury and shatters a sister's glass
door or rips apart the men's room in a friendly neighborhood restaurant.
Timid, violent, secretive, decent and demented, Barry--acted
with depth and stunning range by Adam Sandler--has the soul of a
saint, but when it comes to passing for a functioning member of
society, he is the misfit's misfit. Even he knows that, so he finally
decides to take a tentative step toward social maturity. Here's
what he does: One night, paging through a newspaper in his sterile
bachelor pad, he happens upon an ad for phone sex, places a call,
listens to the graphic instructions being cooed by a woman on the
other end, and slowly--very slowly--gets the hang of what he's supposed
to be doing on his end. But not before giving his credit card number
and other pieces of crucial information to his newfound friend.
Imagine the anticlimax on the following morning when the lady of
the night calls and hits him up for a loan.
Barry refuses to be ripped off, however, and his rage
builds with each new call from the no-longer-cooing con artist.
Still, when her thuggish pals show up in person to apply pressure
on Barry, he seems scarcely to notice. That's because a miracle
has taken place. Barry has fallen in love with Lena, a loopy, delicately
aggressive, extremely sexy Brit--introduced to him, you'll not be
surprised to hear, by his pushiest sister. But when the goons eventually
try to get tough with Lena (Emily Watson, at her most enchanting),
we see a brand-new, very, very scary Barry.
Sound absurd? It is. But coming, as it does, from
Paul Thomas Anderson, the idiosyncratic, wildly innovative director
of "Hard Eight," "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia,"
it is also audacious, poignant, gross, mysterious and laugh-out-loud
funny. I'm happy to say that "Punch-Drunk Love" is to
the average Hollywood movie what Barry and Lena are to the people
next door.
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