Adam Sandler's First Major Dramatic Performance Is Still His Best
Barry Egan is not a particularly easygoing guy. The protagonist of Paul Thomas Anderson's 2002 film "Punch-Drunk Love" is socially awkward, highly anxious, and clearly has trouble regulating his emotions in a healthy way. When he calls a phone sex line, it's because he's lonely and just wants to connect with another person. But as played by Adam Sandler, who was exclusively known for his comedic work until then, Barry becomes someone the audience roots for. Since we have a history with Sandler as someone who has made us laugh, we're perhaps more endeared to this eccentric character than we might've been otherwise.
Anderson knew this — he was dead set on casting Sandler in "Punch-Drunk Love" from the moment he came up with the concept – and saw potential in Sandler that no other director had seen at that point. By hiring him to star in this small, bizarre romance, Anderson forever altered the course of the actor's career and gave him the opportunity to filter some of his familiar acting bits through a different, more grounded lens.
Sandler is famous for the way he can explode into anger, and it's often very funny when that happens. With his exaggerated physicality and dripping sarcasm, he can almost feel like a cartoon character. But here, Anderson gave Sandler the ability to tap into that anger in a new way — one that trades that cartoonish nature for something much more realistic. The "Punch-Drunk Love" audience may not always agree with Barry Egan's methods, but we understand his anger as something recognizable in our everyday lives.
There are moments in this film where Barry's anger and violence feels scary. If you're a non-violent person and you've ever been around a violent person, you know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when violence breaks out around you, and "Punch-Drunk Love" is fascinating because Sandler's performance has a little bit of that feeling to it while simultaneously asking you to buy into a love story between Barry and Emily Watson's character, Lena. It's a concoction that feels wholly unique, and it wouldn't have worked nearly as well with another actor in the lead role.
Punch-Drunk Love is still Adam Sandler's best dramatic performance
In one of the film's climactic moments, when Sandler faces off against the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who Sandler thought shared some acting DNA with his former "Saturday Night Live" co-star Chris Farley, it seems like that underlying violence could explode into something dangerous — maybe even fatal. Instead, Hoffman's character backs down when he realizes the extreme lengths Barry will go to get Hoffman and his cronies out of his life. Extremity is at the core of Sandler's performance here, whether it reveals itself in explosive moments of letting his pent-up energy escape or in quiet scenes like the one where Barry and Lena talk about how they're so in love with each other that they want to smash each other's faces in. (It's an odd movie!)
While his later roles required varying levels of explosiveness from the actor, more than 20 years later, this performance still remains the best dramatic work of Sandler's entire career.
We spoke about Sandler's "Punch-Drunk Love" performance and the rest of his work as a dramatic actor on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which also touched on Sandler's new Netflix film, "Spaceman." Check it out below:
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For more about the Sandman, check out our list of Adam Sandler's best roles, ranked.