Punch Drunk Love: Cameron Haber

Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love stars a socially anxious novelty salesman, Adam Sandler as Barry Egan. Although the movie is rather "triply" it really is a pretty good film. Compliments to Mr.Anderson for this one he really used all of his techniques to the max of his abilities. Something that i noticed he does is he try's to convey the characters feeling to your own so the viewer can feel what the character feels. The perfect example is the scene in Barry's office when his sister introduces him to her freind Lena, played by Emily Watson. The viewer already knows Barry's character has some major anxiety problems so what does he do? He transfers those emotions over to the viewer by doing a few things. First off he has Barry talk to this girl who he is obviously attracted too and who is of his main focus. Second we have the workers of Barry's company having trouble operating the machinery and crashing the fork lifts into the walls. Third the telephone in Barry's office is ringing constantly with Barry's black mailing "Phone sex" operator on the other end. Then if this scene didn't make you feel anxious and uncomfortable enough, Anderson takes advantage of one of his personal specialties as a hollywood director, his use of soundtrack. He throws the most unusually awkward soundtrack into this scene just to top off the feeling of rush, anxiousness,  and exhaustion. He truley wants the viewer to feel the emotions Sandler's character feels. Throughout the film Anderson also used long and wide shots often when filming Barry down hallways. Perhaps Anderson did this entetinally to represent Barry's emotions of feeling small or less compared to the world. This would make sence since Barry character suffers from such strong anxiety.  I also believe Anderson intentionally has Barry where the silly looking blue suit to represent Barry's depression which we also know he suffers from. Although Punch Drunk Love starts rather slowly and takes a bit to understand, and get into, it really is a good movie. I must say personally I am a bigger fan of the directing techniques then the plot it self. But the plot is good enough, the characters out of the ordinary, and the directing phenomenal. Thus why Punch Drunk Love is a good film.