Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 183
Fresh: 144 | Rotten: 39
Odd, touching, and unique, Punch-Drunk Love is also delightfully funny, utilizing Adam Sandler's comic persona to explore the life of a lonely guy who finds love.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 8
Odd, touching, and unique, Punch-Drunk Love is also delightfully funny, utilizing Adam Sandler's comic persona to explore the life of a lonely guy who finds love.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 125,093
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Movie Info
Adam Sandler and Emily Watson star in Punch-Drunk Love, an odd romantic comedy from gifted young director Paul Thomas Anderson. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a shy sad-sack with a great deal of repressed anger that occasionally bursts forth in sudden violent outrages, who falls in love with Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), a co-worker of one of Barry's seven sisters. After calling a phone-sex line, Barry is extorted by bad-guy Dean Trumbell (Anderson regular Philip Seymour Hoffman), who eventually sends
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Cast
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Adam Sandler
Barry Egan -
Emily Watson
Lena Leonard -
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Dean Trumbell -
Luis Guzman
Lance -
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Elizabeth -
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Punch-Drunk Love Trailer & Photos
All Critics (192) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (148) | Rotten (41) | DVD (44)
It's a romantic comedy on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Top CriticThe film looks good and has its funny moments, but too often one senses Anderson straining to impress...
It is quite a vision.
The journey toward redemption feels more like a cinematic experiment than a full-blown movie.
Despite its title, Punch-Drunk Love is never heavy-handed. The jabs it employs are short, carefully placed and dead-center.
In the end, Punch-Drunk Love is one of those films that I wanted to like much more than I actually did. Sometimes, that's enough.
There's certainly no questioning the technical ability on show, but unfortunately the end result is often more impressive than it is involving.
Odd romantic journey for adults and older teens.
While certainly sweet, Love is more compelling as a veiled threat, with Anderson jerking the audience around, wielding abrasive characters and hostile situations in a manner I've come to adore.
Shots, such as when Sandler and Watson kiss in silhouette, are truly memorable -- but Punch-Drunk Love is never more than this: a series of chocolate-box moments, PT-style.
...Punch-Drunk Love is (and always will be) the crowning achievement within Anderson's filmography.
It's clear by now that whatever characterization skill Anderson showed in his lean, mean debut, 1997's Hard Eight, was a fluke.
A trifle at 89 minutes with a genuine, heartfelt performance by Mr. Sandler, and not much else.
Watson is simply radiant with her goofy and beautiful smile, while Sandler's psychotic nice-guy schtick makes for some really great moments.
Paul Thomas Anderson used Sandler for a very specific purpose -to convey a sense of tough-luck awkwardness and smile-masking-frown frustration, and it worked perfectly.
Anderson is simply punch-drunk on the possibilities of cinema, and sophisticated film lovers will be more than willing to go wherever he goes -- yes, even to an Adam Sandler movie.
Audience Reviews for Punch-Drunk Love
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Barry Egan: I have no buisness here, I came for you.
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- Barry Egan: I have a love in my life, It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.
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Latest News on Punch-Drunk Love
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Foreign Titles
- Punch drunk love (FR)
- Embriagado de amor (ES)
