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Punch-Drunk Love
Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures


5.7

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 130 votes
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FILM:

BOOKS:

Rebels On The Backlot by Sharon Waxman

MPAA RATING: R for strong language including a scene of sexual dialogue

Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, and Mary Lynn Rajskub

Paul Thomas Anderson's fourth film features Sandler as a lonely man with serious emotional issues. As he concocts a scheme involving frequent flier miles and copious amounts of pudding, he finds himself both falling prey to a phone-sex scam and falling in love with his sister's colleague.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Thomas Anderson
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Thomas Anderson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 24, 2003 Video: June 24, 2003 Theatrical: October 11, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Winner, Best Director (tie), 2002 Cannes Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

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.

100

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.

100

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 130 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chris F. gave it a3:
Coming from someone that enjoys independent films and films about nothing, this is possibly one of the biggest waste of times in my life. It's amazing how people get caught up in visuals, music and incoherent plot lines. I've said it once and I'll say it again, Boogie Nights is and has been PT Anderson's apex. He has not come close in any of his films since then. They all have been overrated, over-bloated and an example of visual masturbation. I like to think outside the box and I enjoy music and movies that reflect that. People who like this movie shouldn't blast someone for not liking it. Honestly, it's a hard film to digest and if you got it great, good for you. Pat yourself on the back, but don't blast me because I don't like it. Because "I don't get it". No I don't, get over it and get over yourself. You're not that smart.

Jordan S. gave it a9:
Yeah, this film was genius. I think the reason no one got it is because there was nothing to get. It's just a very charming, funny, and real movie. Paul Thomas Anderson has and probably never will disappoint.

Rick S gave it a3:
OH SHUT UP, Tristan M. I will not see a movie that does not make sense,Hollywood, or independent. Why watch a movie for one hour thats goes no where,P.T. Anderson has a habit of trying to put this BS shock value in his films, if you ask me, some big Hollywood type movies are way clever than this garbage. And WTF is "non-Hollywood" movies. Good God this movie was bad, The Charlotte Observer was right.

Pablo G gave it a7:
Tristan M, please get off your high horse. Just because people hate a movie you liked doesn't make them ignorant. This was a good movie, but not great. Boogie Nights is his masterpiece, Magnolia was OK but very flawed, and There Will Be Blood was fantastic, but Punch-Drunk Love is merely "good". It was nice to see PTA do something different as well as Sandler.

Michael F. gave it a10:
Absolutely amazing. If you are open-minded and intelligent enough to follow the movie through to the end you are rewarded with a sort of visceral catharsis that is rare in modern cinema. The colors and music are achingly beautiful, and Sandler's performance is laudable. The ignorance present in the negative reviews can be summed up in a single quote from one of them: "Worst Adam Sandler movie ever." Guess what you idiot? It's not an Adam Sandler movie, it's a P.T. Anderson movie that Sandler acts in.

Tristan M. gave it a10:
Everybody who hates this movie keeps complaining about how disjointed the script was, how terrible they think the dialogue was, the jarring music, how nothing makes sense, blah blah blah blah blah. How ignorant can you get? People are too afraid to step outside the box and see things from a different perspective because they are too used to being spoon-fed the same formulaic Hollywood garbage where everything has to be explained and make sense. The reason why most of the professional critics gave the film such good reviews (and why P.T. Anderson won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for this movie) is because they're used to seeing a variety of movies, some which strive to be different, others that don't. If all you allow yourself to see is the typical Hollywood film (including typical Adam Sandler comedies), then of course you're not going to recognize and appreciate the beauty of this film. Start watching movies from other countries (or more American independent cinema) and you'll quickly see that there are THOUSANDS of movies out there that don't make sense, that don't explain everything, and don't rely on dialogue. Hollywood films rely on dialogue; you can more or less tell what's going on in the movie just by listening, without even having to see it. Punch-Drunk Love (and other examples of art cinema) are usually more concerned with the visual look than they are with dialogue or plot, since cinema is a VISUAL medium. Look at the shots and editing in Punch-Drunk Love. If you don't remember what they looked like, then you weren't paying attention. Go back and watch the film again and note how the color and cinematography and editing are different than a typical Hollywood film. Do you think it's easy to make a film like that, to rely on less editing like P.T. Anderson does? Anybody who has experience making movies knows that it's much harder to shoot a film using long takes and a moving camera than the safer, easier to manipulate rapid editing of a typical Hollywood film. Watch the movie again with an open mind and think about that. And watch more non-Hollywood movies; after a while, you'll start to see why somebody might love this movie so much.

Stephen Q. gave it a10:
A dark romantic-comedy about love and how everyone deserves it, even the neurotic. This isn't Billy Madison, this is a dark, gritty and surprisingly uplifting romance. I think of it as a lesser Tony Takitani (another great indie flick). If you've ever felt Napoleon Dynamite-ish and been depressed, this is the movie for you.

Punch-Drunk Love Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures

Punch-Drunk Love
Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures