Punch-Drunk Love Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, November 16, 2016



The shy workaholic

There are two key elements of the story that this film tells that will likely shape up your opinion of it. The first is easy to defend. In the real world there are a lot of people like Adam Sandler's character, Barry Egan, that prefer to spend the majority of their time in their shells. In fact, you probably already know someone like him because with the expansion of social media their numbers have increased dramatically. The second is not that easy to defend because the film essentially demands that you accept that they can all adapt to the environment in which they exist as well as Barry does. If you believe that this is possible, then the quirkiness of the story will never bother you and you will likely have a great time with the film. But if you don't, it is virtually guaranteed that you will be bored to tears by it.I knew a guy once that was a lot like Barry. He was a big baseball fan, very smart and sort of a perfectionist. He also had a difficult time socializing, and I knew that when he was alone with his thoughts he routinely felt really bad about his inability to connect with people. So he had these periods when he would become severely depressed and literally could not function. Playing baseball was the only 'cure' that worked for him. I think that it was the feeling that he was part of a team and that his efforts during the game were instantly appreciated that helped him bounce back. I have been to a couple of these games and the transformation that I would witness at the end was truly amazing. My friend eventually met a girl who permanently forced him out of his shell and they got married. They have two girls now and a little boy that also loves baseball.In the film Barry's road to happiness is different. He also meets a special girl (Emily Watson), but not before he gets involved with some very creepy dude (Philip Seymour Hoffman) running a shady business out of a furniture store somewhere in Utah. Half the film is about Barry trying to distance himself from the creepy dude and his goons, while the other half is about his struggle to find the courage to open up to the girl and let her know how he feels about her. So there are these huge emotional ups and downs in Barry's daily life that basically transform his entire existence into one incredibly strange rollercoaster ride. At the end someone decides that he has had enough and shuts down the rollercoaster, but before it happens Barry nearly loses his mind.The film can be quite entertaining at times but there are big chunks of it that also feel a tad too artificial. For example, there are some editing choices that make the abrupt emotional shifts in Barry's life look utterly unbelievable. Elsewhere, the film seems a lot more interested in your temporary reactions to some of its tricks rather than Barry's condition, and when this happens it almost feels like you are viewing a clip from a very long colorful commercial whose financiers desperately wanted to sell you a product that isn't easy to sell. So between feeling for Barry and feeling that your senses are being tested viewing the film could be a rather strange experience. I enjoyed it, but I would have preferred if it was either painfully realistic or decisively over-the-top with the stylization.was partially inspired by a true story. In 1999, David Phillips, a University of California civil engineer, purchased a massive amount of pudding for approximately $3,000 and earned a little over 1.2 million airline miles. (Barry does something similar and vows to follow his girl while she flies around the world).