Punch-Drunk Love

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Through this miasma of pain and suffering, love may not flicker more strongly than a dim lamp. But it's the only beacon to consider. Can Barry find his? Thanks to Anderson's assured picture, a symphony of cinematic textures, that disarmingly simple question becomes incredibly compelling.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Anderson orchestrates a comic romance like no other. The effect is intoxicating. Sandler and the movie will knock you for a loop.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

With its feverish, percussive soundtrack and bravura cinematography, is like a bolt from the blue, chock-full of unexpected delight.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Anderson delivers a satisfyingly quirky, cinematically masterful valentine that contains more seeds of truth about the human heart than a hundred big fat Greek comedies.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Something we haven't seen before: a manic-depressive romantic comedy that aspires to the soul of a musical. It's a new-fashioned love song.

Slate David Edelstein

I found it exquisite. In part I responded out of sheer amazement: I've never seen anything like the sequences in which Sandler, in his boxy, sea-blue suit, charges around his warehouse to the rhythm of Brion's harsh drums.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Entirely unpredictable and marked by audacious strokes of directorial bravado.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film is exhilarating to watch because Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An Adam Sandler movie with class, and if that sounds like an oxymoron, so be it. The movie is a happy nightmare of silly-smart movie comedy that defies category - and challenges expectations involving Sandler and his pictures.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

No film this year has offered quite the cerebral tickle, weird invention and slaphappy gusto.

USA Today Mike Clark

Despite its title, Punch-Drunk Love is never heavy-handed. The jabs it employs are short, carefully placed and dead-center.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's a honey of a performance: controlled, achingly human, and funny in the deepest ways.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a small victory, but Punch-Drunk Love knows how to reap epic delight from the most precious of details.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Whether Adam Sandler can actually act is not actually answered in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love. But he's great in it.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Deeply rich and strange new romantic comedy.

Newsweek David Ansen

Punch-Drunk Love is one dark, strange-tasting sorbet, its sweetness shot through with startling, unexpected flavors. It’s a romantic comedy on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Film Threat Darrin Keene

It works because of Anderson's ability to challenge viewer expectations. Instead of making his principal actors change, he manipulates the story and dialogue to match their characters. His exquisite art-house camera shots and sense of pacing set Sandler up to do his usual thing in an almost poetic manner.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Charming and outlandish by turns, this misfit love story of disconnected people trying to find one another in an antagonistic world is a comedy of discomfort and rage that turns unexpectedly sweet and pure.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

A startling achievement, but its lack of psychological dimension prevents it from making much human contact with us. It ends where it begins: in a state of shock.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Anderson and Sandler were meant for each other, and their romance is, unbelievably, our reward.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Difficult too, and certainly problematic, but it's sometimes quite wonderful. Do see it if you're curious about one-of-a-kind films, and if you care about the ever-evolving career of one of our most gifted filmmakers.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's funny, too, though marked by an uneasy humor that's usually difficult to achieve. Anderson handles it with expert ease: At this point in his career, he moves the camera like a skilled dance partner, investing the smallest gesture with significance.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Poetry is perhaps the best way to think about Mr. Anderson's suave, exuberant balance of free-form inspiration and formal control.

LA Weekly John Powers

The movie winds up being his sunniest, for Anderson takes care to keep their love sweet, daffy and punch-drunk. This is a film in which that modern obsession, frequent-flier mileage, becomes proof of fidelity, and true intimacy is portrayed by a man telling his lover, "I'm sorry I beat up the bathroom."

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The outlandish story and exaggerated colors ... swirl together to create an ethereal, sometimes sinister dreamscape.

Time Richard Schickel

There is something arresting about it too. The damned thing keeps gnawing at your mind -- if only for its almost perfect lack of conventional sentiment. Or movieness.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The result is a treat for Sandler fans and a revelation for those of us who've spent the last decade wondering what on earth his appeal is.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Quirky and stylish, but not in a manner that comes across as overly artsy or pretentious.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

One of the most inventive offerings so far this season.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Sweet-natured, meticulously observed love story.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The strangest thing about writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's unusual romantic comedy is how much of it is based on a true story.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Unconventional and idiosyncratic love story.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Sandler and Watson make something out of their underwritten roles, and that they do is testament to their talents: They make this punchy romantic comedy more engaging than it should be.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I wouldn't have minded even the Hollywood schlock lurking behind the studied weirdness if I'd believed in any of the characters on any level.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

As elegantly crafted as it often is, Anderson's movie is essentially a one-trick pony that, hampered by an undeveloped script, ultimately pulls up lame.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Punch-Drunk Love buries a terrific performance by Adam Sandler under a heap of faux cleverness, meaningless symbolism and irritating mannerisms.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Essentially a weird series of nonsequiturs. I'd rather be watching a sequel to the much-maligned "Little Nicky" -- a Sandler film that was at least trying to do something interesting -- than this failed experiment in fusing high and low culture.