Punch-Drunk Love

Barry Egan is a single man who owns a company that markets themed toilet plungers and other novelty items. He has seven overbearing sisters who ridicule and emotionally abuse him regularly, and he leads a lonely life punctuated by fits of rage and social anxiety. One day, he witnesses an inexplicable car accident, picks up an abandoned harmonium from the street, and encounters Lena Leonard, a coworker for one of his sisters, Elizabeth. Lena had orchestrated this meeting after seeing him in a family picture belonging to Elizabeth.

Barry goes to his sister's birthday party, where the rest of his sisters ridicule him. They bring up the times when they would call him "gay boy" until he got mad. They bring up an incident from when he was younger when he threw a hammer through their sliding glass window. He reacts angrily, shattering his sister's windows. He talks to his brother-in-law, where he asks if he can give him the phone number to a therapist.

Coping with his loneliness, Barry calls a phone-sex line, but the operator attempts to extort money and sends her four henchmen, who are brothers, to collect. This complicates his budding relationship with Lena, as well as his plan to exploit a loophole in a Healthy Choice promotion and amass a million frequent flyer miles by purchasing large quantities of pudding.

After Lena leaves for Hawaii on a business trip, Barry decides to follow her. He arrives and calls Elizabeth to find out where Lena is staying. When his sister starts abusing him again, Barry snaps and demands she give him the information, which she does. Lena is overjoyed to see Barry. They spend time together and make love. At first, Barry explains that he is in Hawaii on a business trip by coincidence, but he soon admits that he came only for her. When Barry's sister calls Lena in Hawaii, Lena tells her that she has not had any contact with Barry, loyally preserving his and their privacy. The romance develops further, and Barry finally feels some relief from the emotional isolation he has endured.

After they return home, the four brothers ram their car into Barry's, leaving Lena mildly injured. With his new-found freedom from loneliness in jeopardy, a surprisingly aggressive and poised Barry adeptly fights off all four of the goons in a matter of seconds, using a tire iron. Wanting to make sure Lena is recovered, Barry leaves her at the hospital and tries to end the harassment by calling the phone-sex line back and speaking to the "supervisor", who turns out to be Dean Trumbell, the owner of a mattress store in Provo, Utah. There, Barry confronts Dean face to face. Dean, at first trying to intimidate Barry, finds him more intimidating after he tells him that he is in love and it makes him stronger than anyone else. An end to the harassment is implied once Dean learns that Barry has come all the way from California, and confronts him instead of going to the police, though Dean tries to save face by getting in the last word.

Barry returns to Lena's apartment, and tells her everything, about the phone-sex episode, and Dean's goons, and begs her for forgiveness, pledging his loyalty and to use his frequent-flier miles to accompany her on all future business trips in just six to eight weeks after his pudding miles are processed. She was upset he left the hospital but eventually agrees, and they embrace happily. Some time later, Lena approaches Barry in his office while he plays the harmonium. She puts her arms around him and says, "So, here we go."

• Adam Sandler as Barry Egan
• Emily Watson as Lena Leonard
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dean Trumbell
• Mary Lynn Rajskub as Elizabeth Egan
• Luis Guzmán as Lance
• Robert Smigel as Walter the dentist

After the success of Magnolia, Anderson stated that he would work with Adam Sandler and that he was determined to make his next film ninety minutes long.[3]

The film was released on VHS and DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment on June 24, 2003.

The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray in November 2016 with a restored HD transfer, the first time the company had done so for Anderson and Sandler. It has behind-the-scenes featurette about a recording session for the film's soundtrack, a Cannes press conference and deleted scenes.[12]

The score to Punch-Drunk Love was composed by Jon Brion. As with Magnolia, Brion and Anderson collaborated heavily for the production of the film's score. However, rather than scoring the film after rough footage had been shot, Brion made compositions while making the film. During the scoring process, Brion would experiment with tones and sounds, carefully making note of what Anderson would respond to. Anderson himself would create the vocal tempos he would envision in the score and use them on set, even to the extent of inspiring the pace of Sandler's performance.

The film's score features heavy use of the harmonium. Brion had introduced Anderson for it on Magnolia, and Anderson knew he wanted it to feature heavily in the score.[13] Many scenes between Sandler's character and the instrument were inspired by Brion. For instance, Brion once found a harmonium with a hole in its bellows before going on tour with Aimee Mann. To fix the problem, he covered the hole with duct tape. The situation is mirrored in the film.

• Punch-Drunk Love on IMDb
• Punch-Drunk Love at Rotten Tomatoes
• Punch-Drunk Love at Metacritic
• Early draft screenplay for Punch-Drunk Love from dailyscript.com
• Punch-Drunk Love: A Delegate Speaks an essay by Miranda July at the Criterion Collection