Punch-Drunk Love

Drunk with confusion. Sometimes the line between a peculiar comedy and a strange attempt at one is just too thin. Paul Thomas Anderson was going after the one for so long that he ended up taking a few steps towards the other. I was looking for the promised romance of a lifetime, believable performances, and the feeling of finding myself. Instead, I just got lost. (17/07/2005)

For P.T. Anderson an unusually short running time, but the enormous potential of this film has been exploited to the hilt. This is no longer "just" (it must be added that this "just" will forever remain a mystery to most filmmakers) a brilliant script supported by extremely imaginative direction, but one of the most impressive films I have ever seen, one with extraordinary charm and enormous heart. In the moments when Barry (Adam Sandler not only surprises but plays his role superbly) suppresses a huge amount of anger, helplessness, and revulsion, I felt a little (a lot) like that – it just blew me away because there is so much feeling and emotion in it I couldn't even manage to "live out" three times :)) (16/02/2010)

Paul Thomas Anderson in to film what like Picasso is to painting, disjointed, abstract, and hard to decipher. Most conventional viewers won't understand him, and a large number of seasoned viewers won't accept him for various reasons, because he is not classical enough and regrettably has the unfortunate quality that his films always seem to have something "more", but that's not always true, which is exactly the case here. Sandler is excellent. (21/04/2015)

Paul Thomas Anderson and I probably won't ever be close friends. I don't enjoy his films for their pace or concept. Adam Sandler shows that he can act, and I'm glad for that, but even with his presence, I couldn't quite get into the film. The long, tedious shots just didn't engage me, even though at times I thought the story was unfolding quite unexpectedly. (25/06/2014)

Magnolia tore me up emotionally and Boogie Nights entertained me fantastically. But Punch-Drunk Love – regardless of how innovatively and imaginatively it was directed – didn’t move me at all. It’s a spectacularly stylized void, both emotionally and intellectually. (03/01/2003)