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Punch-Drunk Love
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Punch-Drunk Love (2002) More at IMDbPro »

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Punch-Drunk Love (2002) -- Canadian
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) -- A beleaguered small-business owner gets a harmonium and embarks on a romantic journey with a mysterious woman.

Overview

User Rating:
7.4/10   43,861 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Writer (WGA):
Paul Thomas Anderson (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Punch-Drunk Love on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 November 2002 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | Drama | Romance more
Plot:
A beleaguered small-business owner gets a harmonium and embarks on a romantic journey with a mysterious woman. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 13 wins & 15 nominations more
User Comments:
Wow, I never *felt* a movie before more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Adam Sandler ... Barry Egan
Jason Andrews ... Operator Carter (voice)

Don McManus ... Plastic (voice)

Emily Watson ... Lena Leonard

Luis Guzmán ... Lance
David Schrempf ... Customer #1
Seann Conway ... Customer #2

Rico Bueno ... Rico
Hazel Mailloux ... Rhonda
Karen Kilgariff ... Anna (voice)
Julie Hermelin ... Kathleen
Salvador Curiel ... Sal
Jorge Barahona ... Jorge
Ernesto Quintero ... Ernesto
Julius Steuer ... Mechanic
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Just Desserts (USA) (working title)
Punchdrunk Knuckle Love (USA) (working title)
The X-4 Project (USA) (working title)
Untitled P.T. Anderson Project (USA) (working title)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for strong language including a scene of sexual dialogue.
Runtime:
95 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Filming Locations:
Claremont, California, USA more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
At one point in the film, Adam Sandler (Barry) is being followed by the Steadicam as he talks on the phone. During one take, the front of the camera accidentally bumped into a table and knocked the camera briefly, causing the shot to jump from Sandler to an image of an out-of-focus piece of the set and then quickly re-adjust. Paul Thomas Anderson loved the effect and wanted to do it again, so the crew did more takes and right at the same point in the dialog, they smacked the front of the matte box on the camera to re-create the look. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: While Barry is running away from the brothers from Utah, a shadow of the cameraman is visible on the street. more
Quotes:
[Barry looks around... ]
Barry: Healthy Choice and American Airlines got together and put this promotion: If you buy any 10 Healthy Choice products, they will reward you with 500 frequent flier miles; with this special coupon, they'll up it to 1,000 miles. So, I think they are trying to push their teriyaki chicken which is $1.79, but I went to the supermarket and I looked around and I saw that they had pudding...
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
References Happy Gilmore (1996) more
Soundtrack:
Waikiki more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
95 out of 101 people found the following comment useful:-
Wow, I never *felt* a movie before, 10 November 2003
Author: SFMovieFan from San Francisco

One of my old English teachers once asked us about a book, "Did you all like the book? I'm not asking whether you enjoyed it; I don't care. I want to know if you liked it." She was making an important distinction.

I remembered that as I watched Punch-Drunk Love. It's very unusual. The film is set in L.A., but you don't see much scenery indicating that. You see unpleasant things. Adam Sandler's office is long and empty: just seeing him sitting at his desk assaults you with a feeling of loneliness (not because of any sappy music--but because of the set and the camera work). He walks out into a never-ending warehouse; it feels empty, brutal. He exits the warehouse and you see another unending sight: the row of garage-like doors of all the other warehouses. It feels like it lasts forever, this row of doors, and when Adam gets to the end of it, he looks out onto a long, straight, industrial, empty street. It looks HORRIBLE, but why? Nothing is happening on the street, there are no gruesome sights, no particular signs of squalor or anything, and yet you feel repulsed, hopeless, alone. Then, out of the distance, a car whizzes by, nothing unusual, but it feels abrasive. With no relation at all to the plot, just as it appears, this car hits something and explodes, its remains slide off into the distance and you see nothing more of it. It's trivial. But you feel like the movie is being hostile toward YOU, the viewer.

Yes, that's the best way I can put it: you feel like the movie is being hostile toward YOU. A few minutes later, a truck flies by, again very abrasively, and drops a harmonium in front of Adam Sandler. There is no rhyme or reason to this, it just happens, and it's all very unpleasant.

About a third of the way through the video, my phone rang. I told my friend what I was watching, and she asked how it was. I told her, "I can't decide. I'm not sure I like it." I kept watching. At the end, I understood. What I had meant to tell my friend was that I wasn't enjoying it. And I wasn't meant to.

The film starts out with a very bad point in Adam Sandler's life. He is neurotic, you want to kill his sisters even though they're not malicious per se, he is lonely, his life is unpleasant. This movie is trying to do more than TELL you it's unpleasant, and even more than SHOW you it's unpleasant: the movie is trying to get inside you and make you FEEL it. You seriously feel the abrasiveness of every image, every sound, every character; you feel accosted by it. When there's silence, it's brutal silence. When there are sounds, they're brutal sounds. Images and movements are abrasive. Until Adam's life begins to flourish: then you get pretty sounds, pretty colors--as the viewer, you're let off the hook, too.

So when it was over, I was in amazement. How many movies succeed at this, at taking you WITH them to the discomfort the character is living? The cinematography, the sound work, the script--none of it is any accident. When his life isn't going well, you FEEL it. Did I like the movie? Very much. And if you appreciate a very unusual take on an old topic, you will too.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Why did PSH's character care so much about getting money from Barry? whoshal1
If 'Punch-Drunk Love' is In Your Top 15, Post It! SickJoke
No Cell Phones ItsFlooded
Second phone call at beginning of movie vincentpatrick23
Just finished my 2nd viewing (PTA fans please help) M-Dub_godz
Does anyone have an explanation for the piano? moviemania101
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