Punch Drunk Love

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

2002

13 September 2025

See

Barry (Adam Sandler) is a lovable but loveless loser, sitting in his new suit in the warehouse of his wholesale small business in LA, amassing frequent flyer miles by buying pudding he doesn’t eat. He’s harassed by a parliament of squawking sisters, constantly belittling him. He emerges from his shell when a broken tiny piano (a harmonium) and Lena (Emily Watson) a sweet stranger, fall into his lap. 

Think

Barry craves connection, but doesn’t know how. He interacts with his colleague Lance (Luis Huzman) in incredulous ways day to day. Weasels out of awkward family get together where his sister Elizabeth (Mary Lynn Raskub) tries to set her up with her friend. And confides in her doctor husband that he cries all the time for no reason, is angry and needs help. To which he replies “I’m a dentist.”

Feel

It’s hard to get into at the start. It’s like a meme I saw about a hi-fi system, or maybe it was a vinyl player on a curb side with the sign ‘broken, but could be fun to fix’ as an analogy for modern dating. Barry fixes the harmonium he doesn’t know how to play. And goes on dates with Lena, who is for some reason into him. He gets on his first plane to meet her in Hawaii when she’s there for a work conference. And through talent, ruthlessness and luck, goes to great lengths to defend and hold onto what he’s gained when it’s threatened by Dean (Philip Seymour Hoffman) a mattress store owner in another state (Ohio?) and extortionist who tries to blackmail Barry for once having called a phone sex hotline to cure his loneliness.