Flush with the excitement of the Sweet One’s passing her road test this morning, we decided to take in a matinee of the latest from Paul Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), starring Adam Sandler. Sandler wears an odd shade of blue suit throughout the movie, as in every scene, though he can never really explain why even though several other characters ask. This kind of serves as a representation of the movie as a whole.
In other words, Punch Drunk Love fits well with the kind of major studio art house film that is Mulholland Drive, the previous film I saw. Completely opposite in tone and tenor, filled with love and light where Mulholland was filled with violence and darkness, but once again a film that works (and it does work) on a deeper level than just putting out a linear plot.
Sandler spends much of the film running. Which put me in mind of this week’s episode of Smallville as Clark ran the 450 or so miles from Smallville to Edge City. He also falls in love with Emily Watson. Maybe it was the makeup and lighting Anderson used, perhaps a deliberate device, but even though Watson is a year younger than Sandler, she appears to be much older than him, not enough to be his mother but perhaps his mother’s younger sister. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who must have damaging photos of Anderson in a safe deposit box, plays a phone sex operator/scam artist; Sandler runs from the movie’s San Fernando Valley base to Hoffman’s Utah store to conclude their argument in person.
The film also uses some very odd transition graphics, swabs of slowly moving colors, which can be scene on the official website’s page of downloads. Since the whole site is a Flash app (like most movies, unfortunately), I can’t really link to them. The site also offers mp3s of a number of the odd background music used, very reminiscent in several cases of early ’70s Cage/Riley-influenced found jazz experiments.
Not, in other words, a typical Hollywood movie. Plus, Sandler proves he can really act though I don’t expect him to morph into the next Tom Hanks (i.e., Bosom Buddies to Philadelphia). Anderson, younger than either Sandler or Watson, will clearly be seen in 10 to 20 years as one of the more important directors around.
Recommended
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