Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s 90-minute bizzaro romantic fable “Punch-Drunk Love” follows a terribly lonely misfit finally meeting the love of his life. It has everything I love about PTA films, from “Boogie Nights” to “There Will be Blood” –- including the bold realization you are watching a genre film turned on its side -- but on a small and personal scale. It stars Adam Sandler in a loose and heartfelt performance laced with an inner anger that blew me away. He plays Barry, an entrepreneur with possible autism, definite OCD issues, and prone to fits of shocking rage. He cannot contain the boiling hate over his shitty life. Until he meets her, love of his life. Played by Emily Watson. It’s as if Anderson saw Sandler on one end of the cinematic field (“Waterboy”) and Watson on the other end (“Breaking the Waves”) and said, “These two belong together.” I never imagined Sandler could go toe-to-toe with Philip Seymour Hoffman (as a scuz out to ruin Barry) and win, but Anderson has performed a miracle here. That Sandler insists on making “Jack and Jill” crap when he could be making films on this level is nuts. B+