Punch-Drunk Love

Lena (Emily Watson) and Barry (Adam Sandler) connect.

Paul Thomas Anderson is not a director who’s content to repeat himself, something that probably strikes fear into the hearts of movie executives everywhere. Sure, he’s been the critics’ darling since his ingenious Boogie Nights, and his sprawling, adventurous three-hour-plus Magnolia was one of the finest films of the year it arrived. Both of those wildly different films had some things in common; they were long, technically dazzling and featured ensemble casts that made Anderson’s often out-there version of reality seem like something drawn from a completely natural slice of real life. With Punch-Drunk Love, though, Anderson - who won the Best Director prize at Cannes for his efforts - ventures into very different territory. While some of his trademark style is very much in evidence (particularly his fondness for following characters in long tracking shots), this is a departure not only from what many expect from this director, but also from anything resembling conventional mainstream cinema.

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) runs his own business from a cavernous warehouse in an industrial park somewhere in Los Angeles. He’s considered weird by almost everyone around him - his employees, his customers and most of all his many sisters, who’ve spent a lifetime making him feel like an outsider. As a result, Barry rarely goes out and has never travelled, is a complete social misfit and is prone to uncontrolled bursts of extreme, violent anger, something he’s painfully aware of. But when he is introduced to Lena (Emily Watson) by one of his sisters, he realises that he’s found someone who can see past what he sees as his inadequacies and be attracted to him for who he is. Only one small problem; just before he met Lena, the lonely Barry called a phone sex line, and now the operators of that dubious service have decided to pursue him aggressively to try and extract money from him. This could be one situation where Barry’s white-hot anger might come very much in handy…

Barry goes shopping.

Operating almost in a documentary style, Anderson starts off in near-minimalist fashion, introducing us to Barry’s world and headspace with a minimum of fuss; there are no opening credits at all, and there’s very little in the way of conventional structure for the first act of the film. Cinematographer Robert Elswit cheerfully abuses his film stock with overexposure, jarring contrast and grain, and Jon Brion’s music score sounds like it’s come straight out of Barry’s central nervous system; rarely has a character like Barry been so convincingly - and sometimes disturbingly - presented on screen. But when Lena appears in Barry’s life, the film is transformed; suddenly the music is sweepingly orchestrated, colours are vibrant, the light literally dances around them. It may seem like an attempt at cinema verite to start with, but what Anderson’s doing here is immensely clever and insightful.

Much has been made of Adam Sandler taking on the role of Barry, as though his usual comic style was going to present him with a challenge. But Barry’s not at all dissimilar to other characters that Sandler has played in the past - it’s just that here, there are no outright jokes and only very muted moments of humour. At times, he’s disturbingly good at portraying this insular, sad character - but despite those moments of inspiration and a typically terrific performance from Watson, we never quite get an emotional connection when it’s needed most. Despite the film’s ultimately romantic outlook, there’s almost a clinical detachment to it all, something that’s very effective on one level but unsatisfying on another. You can’t help but admire the craft of it all, and the film’s atmosphere and technique is never less than remarkable. But somehow, the story feels underdeveloped and unsatisfying - like we’re watching a mere fragment of a longer, larger slice of Barry’s belated adolescence. Magnolia it’s certainly not - and it never claims to be anything of the sort. But while Punch-Drunk Love has its imperfections, there’s a remarkable filmmaker at work behind the camera - and even though he’s arguably not on top form, it’s hard not to be impressed with the sheer audacity of it all.

Barry and Lena narrowly avoid getting hit by a Blu-Ray laser prototype.

Punch-Drunk Love was shot using anamorphic lenses, and so the theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio is the only way to properly watch it - particularly as Anderson makes extensive use of the wide frame throughout. This DVD faithfully reproduces the entire film frame, as well as the extremes of Elswit’s cinematography - and that might cause some to gasp in horror as they’re confronted with ridiculously un-videophile-like contrast, blazing, blooming bright whites and impenetrable blacks, copious amounts of grain, smudges on the camera lens, variable colour saturation, and enough lens flare to convince certain Photoshop plug-in authors that they were right all along and that everything looks better when you’ve got light artefacts on top of your image.

It’s a challenge to reproduce this on DVD - so much of what’s here is video compression’s worst nightmare - but thanks to an enormously high encoding bitrate, there are no problems at the DVD level to interfere with Anderson and Elswit’s defiantly unique vision.

In the US, this is a “Superbit� release, and in the past that’s translated to “unofficial� Superbit releases here as well, with the encoding being done by the same team at the same time. The high bitrate would suggest that’s the case once again here, but unlike Superbit titles (and their surrogates like Panic Room and Adaptation in region 4) there’s a noticeable layer change pause half way through; it’s well placed and non-disruptive, but it’s visibly there. It’s possibly also worth noting that there is no trailer for Sony Pictures’ DVD Center at the end of the film, implying that another company encoded and authored this disc.

Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Gary Rydstrom.

Okay, now that those of you who see that name and understand what goodness they’re going to enjoy have moved on, we can elaborate for the rest of you…! While the DTS track of the US release is missing in action here (but hey, you do score one of those hilariously inept Russian translation tracks), we doubt that many will be complaining about the Dolby Digital Surround EX 5.1 track on offer here. Mixed by a man who’s undoubtedly the best in the business, the audio throughout is perfect. Dialogue’s clear, the soundstage is perfectly focused and immensely spacious across the front speakers, and the stunningly realistic surrounds come to life very effectively but never to the point of excess. Fidelity is stunning - Jon Brion’s score is the evidence of that, with an immense amount of detail and dynamic range really making a difference.

This is a largely dialogue-driven film, but there are many instances where sound is key, and occasionally quite spectacular. It’s interesting to note that the LFE track, while used when really needed, is never relied upon for the music score; instead, most of the quite substantial bass for that score comes from the main speakers.

Those with EX-capable decoders will be pleased to learn that Dolby has obviously sorted out their problems with the EX flagging of audio tracks, and this one will auto-switch compatible decoders to the correct mode.

This is what heaven looks like to frozen-meal-in-a-box fans.

The absolutely gorgeous animated menus (all based on Jeremy Blake’s “Scopitone� artwork that’s used in the film in a similar manner to the DVD opening sequence of Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark) lead to what you’d hope would be a nice solid bunch of extras - after all, like Magnolia, they have their own DVD to play with, and Anderson’s video diary on that release was one of the most rewarding “making of� features ever seen on DVD. But Anderson’s not giving too much away here; there’s no commentary on the movie disc (sadly), while disc two contains an immensely stylish but rather sparse set of uncompromising extras. All of them, aside from the main theatrical trailer, are letterboxed but non-anamorphic, which is a shame.

If you highlight the title of the film on the main menu and hit “enter�, by the way, you’ll be treated to a playback of all of the extras in random order.

Blossoms and Blood: This is a wonderful companion piece to the movie - a 12-minute short film that’s assembled from alternate takes and deleted scenes from the main movie, mixed with Blake’s artwork and accompanied by a soundtrack in full Dolby Digital 5.1 that features Jon Brion’s song Here We Go (and yes, the song’s mix is in real surround as well). It’s very evocative, so much so that one can forgive its somewhat wilful obtuseness.

Scopitones: These are little mini-montages - 12 of them - featuring Blake’s artwork, as seen in the film itself. Audio is encoded as Dolby 2.0 but is actually mono. There’s a “play all� option, thankfully - most of these are extremely short.

Theatrical Trailers: Three trailers are offered here. The full theatrical trailer has 16:9 video and 5.1 audio, while the artier Jeremy Blake trailer and a short French offering are non-anamorphic with flagged surround sound.

Mattress Man Commercial: A 50-second fake TV ad from one key character, complete with a rather painful stunt ending that may have been intentional, or may not!

Deleted Scenes: Two of ‘em, running to a total of about ten minutes; these are fascinating to watch, but wait until after you’ve seen the movie itself. Video and audio quality is reasonable.

Art: A near-three-minute montage of Blake’s artwork that’s visually stunning, set to a vintage song that’s absolutely terrible, but completely appropriate in the context of the film.

Not The Dolby “City� Trailer: Okay, pick yourself up off the floor. Yes folks, it’s true - Columbia Tristar has delivered a DVD that doesn’t inflict the hapless viewer with the dreaded Dolby “City� trailer before the main feature starts! Instead, what’s supplied here is a Dolby offering we haven’t seen before, but which was made back in 1999 - a Surround EX trailer that lets those of you who are suitably equipped show off your extra rear speaker.

The opening credits - at the end of the film.

It might not be Anderson’s best work, but Punch-Drunk Love still makes for compelling viewing simply because it’s so ruthlessly original, the complete antithesis of the mainstream romantic comedy - yet released by a mainstream studio.

This double-disc set offers “Superbit�-style video performance without the hype, a stunning Dolby EX soundtrack and a small but wonderfully stylish collection of extra features on the second disc. Fans of Anderson’s work won’t need any convincing, needless to say. But if you’re a Sandler fan looking for comedic romantic fluff, stick to your copy of The Wedding Singer. Because Punch-Drunk Love, despite many moments that raise a smile, is not the Sandler fan’s idea of a comedy - something that probably comes as no small relief to fans of Paul Thomas Anderson's work.