Original link
Translate Grantland Film Review
Author: Amos Barshad
Translator: filmichaela
Unauthorized reprinting is prohibited
Just laugh-Adam Sandler has never given up transforming into a serious actor. Look at his IMDB page with an amazing number of works and you will notice-the production of Happy Madison in his works is gradually decreasing (Happy Madison) : A film production company founded by Adam Sandler), and many different types of films have appeared in an orderly manner. From 2004 to 2009, he played "family conflict" in "Spanish Maid", played the widower who lost his wife and daughter in 9/11 in "Starting from the Heart", and played a comedian with cancer in "Funny Characters". Just this year (2014), he starred in the group movie "Man, Woman and Child" directed by Jason Reitman about "The Internet Blocks Love", and next year (2015) he will star in Tom McCarthy's The independent film "The Shoemaker's Life" interprets a quiet man who walks into other people's lives by repairing shoes. Really, he never gave up being serious. It’s a bit bittersweet that his first attempt was in "Private Love Disorder", and he will never be as good as he did in this movie. (The article was published before the release of "The Original Diamond")
Putting this 2002 film into the ranks of romantic comedies is as ridiculous as simply defining Guernica as a giant painting. "Private Love Disorder" is Anderson's fourth work and the most streamlined one at present. After two super-long "epic works", "Boogie Night" and "Magnolia", Anderson wants to control the length this time and find something Have fun. "The Guardian" said at the beginning of the movie: "Three years ago, Anderson took the liberty to tell reporters that he was going to work with Sandler in a 90-minute movie, and he asked Sandler to be the protagonist. I thought Anderson was joking." But that's what this movie does.
Roger Albert tried his best to praise the movie, but he still looked at Sandler’s work list with hesitation. “I’m eager to ask Anderson questions about Sandler,” Albert wrote. "Why is a talented young author film director,"-Anderson is only 32 years old at this time-"will throw himself on the altar of a stupid comedy. (Will be willing to direct a stupid comedy)"
"I love him so much," Anderson said. "He always makes me laugh... If I want to watch something interesting on Saturday night... Or... when I'm sad, I will go to see a Sandler movie. Movies. The last thing you don't want to watch at this time is "Magnolia" or "Broken Waves." So when I watch Sandler, I think, God, I want to get some of this humor, and I have to learn from him. Where does he attract so many people? I think he is a great communicator."
Now, the situation is quite different. At some point in 2011, Sandler lost his magic. Since then, he has repeatedly wanted to recapture the soul of his early works: naive and arrogant, anarchic, but heartwarming in nature. But repeatedly defeated. For the money-oriented United States, his bigger failure was a hit in the box office performance. In the previous Sony’s leaked emails, netizens talked about it, and some employees complained about the film company’s support for Sandler’s film, "We Have to continue to endure the stupid and old-fashioned Sandler movies." Sadly, these employees are right.
But in the early 2000s, people undoubtedly agreed with Anderson. For the people of that era, "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore" meant Cannon DVD players. "Stay Done" and "Fake Dad" represented the second wave of humor, and there was The meticulously polished nostalgic "Wedding Singer" is Sandler's pinnacle work-protagonist Robbie White, a lazy man with a naive heart, is Sandler's most typical movie image, and "Private Love" "Dissonance" deepens these characteristics, and Sandler becomes more vulnerable, more affectionate, and crazier. I think it may be that Sandler sang a song too meaningful in the second section of "The Wedding Singer" that made Anderson decide to use him as the protagonist. The lyrics sang: Kill me, I want to die, let the bullet pass through me Head of it.
"Private Love Disorder" is inspired by the story of "Pudding Man", yes, "Pudding Man" is real. In 1999, California citizen David Phillips cleverly took advantage of the health options company's discounts to get a free flight. He found that the price of pudding was much lower than the price of the company’s promotional activities to give away the corresponding air miles, so he bought For $3,140 of pudding, in exchange for a range of 1253,000 miles, this exaggerated figure means almost unlimited range.
In "Private Love Disorder," Anderson gave the protagonist the same hobby. Throughout the movie, all the characters-including Barry's lover, Lena played by Emily Watson, always repeatedly ask "What's wrong with the pudding?" Chen, bears the role of unbearable loneliness.
He wore a royal blue suit and worked in a cavernous cold and dark warehouse, taking care of the production of new plungers. In the movie, Sandler introduced a kind of plunger recently produced by their warehouse to potential customers, which has a stronger handle, and knocked on the plunger at the table to demonstrate. Unfortunately, he took the wrong sample, but even in the plunger. When he was thrown to a halt, Barry Egan did not show the slightest panic because of excessive mental tension.
Barry Egan has seven sisters who love him, but this love is so overwhelming. This huge family was inspired by Anderson’s childhood life. The British "Gentleman" magazine published an article "The Private History of Paul Thomas Anderson". The author believes that Anderson had some unusual behaviors in his early years, partly because he suffered from low blood sugar. (Anderson’s childhood friends said that he was always trying to maintain his blood sugar balance so that he did not act like a lunatic), partly because he grew up in a family environment with three sisters and five half-brothers and sisters middle. A friend of Anderson’s father once said: “Anytime Anderson’s father takes him with his three sisters, Anderson always feels that his father is partial to his daughter.”
Barry Egan’s sisters are always stimulating and persecuting him in the name of being good for him, and they always happily discuss the painful childhood memories that Egan does not want to recall. In the film, the sisters joked to Egan: “Remember that we always called Are you a "little gay guy"?" This joke is not as easy as it seems. It deeply hurt Egan’s feelings. The director used extreme and surreal methods to show Egan’s collapse. Egan is like a professional thug. The kick smashed three floor-to-ceiling windows. After the violent breaking sound, there was a strong contrast. But just when the audience thought that Egan had finally gained the "respect" of his sisters through extreme means, a sharp voice sounded: "Barry, you This idiot!"
At the time of the film’s release, Anderson insisted that he just wanted to make an Adam Sandler comedy. "It feels great to shoot something funny," he said in an interview in 2003. "I hope this movie can be more humorous, but unfortunately I didn't do it, but the shooting process is still very fun."
He told a French reporter, "I want to make an entertaining film." The French reporter couldn't believe the intention of the film was so direct. He retorted: "In my opinion, this film discusses the choice of nihilism... I feel you are discussing the distortions of consumerist society."
Anderson insisted that the beginning of a car crash is indeed a bit surreal, but this is the same as the concert opening with a hit single, just to attract the audience to watch the next content. "No, there is no nihilism," he said. "Not at all. I'm going in the deep opposite direction. I just want to make an entertaining movie for the masses."
I believe in him. He didn't play deep games, nor did he satirize anyone. When Sandler and Emily Watson held hands for the first time, Anderson circled the transition, leaving only their clasped hands in the whole scene, I knew that this movie was not a satirical comedy, Anderson was real. Want to make a lovely Adam Sandler comedy, and he succeeded in doing it.
In Anderson's highly skilled lens, this film gives a strong sense of intertwined bitterness and joy. In the office on Sunday morning, the protagonist Egan’s sister (Mary Lin Ledescu, who gave a wonderful performance in very few shots) tried hard to get Lena and Egan together, "We are going to go. Have breakfast before, are you coming together?" She came uninvited and said loudly, "Let’s go together, hurry up!" At the same time, last night’s gentle and harmless telephone operator called at this time, wanting Blackmail a sum of money. In the background, a terrible loader operator was loading and unloading cargo, roaring constantly, throwing cargo everywhere.
Throughout the film, Jon Bryan's quirky soundtrack is an important element in creating the tense tone of the film. Anderson said that some distribution music was recorded directly in the warehouse in the film. The sound of the heavy box dropping in the background sound is the core of creating a sense of tension. In addition to that, there are continuous telephone ringing and Lena’s kind voice, although the latter gives people tension and the former. completely different. After a panic, like a routine in comedy movies, the box fell heavily from the loading and unloading machine at a precise moment, and Barry finally let out a sigh of relief. He finally had a suitable reason to refuse breakfast and dealt with the phone call before embarrassing. good. Although Lena was rejected, she still gave Barry a second chance. She asked: "Do you want to have dinner with me tomorrow night?"
From here on, the story line is closer. We were taken to Provo City, Utah, and learned that the person behind the blackmail of the electric love is the owner of the D&D mattress king company, a fat man named Dean Trumbel (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) The neurotic blond man, full of big talk and terrifying intimidation, sent his brothers to California to threaten Barry, who had just harvested a little happiness.
In the script, Trumbel has more roles. "What are you doing, Silly Bi?" In the bar he cursed at a passerby who accidentally bumped into him, "Are you dying?" "Relax," the passerby said. "I'll let you be very relaxed." Trombel continued to scold, passers-by begged for peace in a strange way, saying: "I have wine in my hand." Trombel took a bottle of beer and went to the bar. Before smashing the wine bottle, he shouted: "You have wine!! I have it too! I have wine too! Xiaobi brat!"
In the end, Anderson left only a core performance of Hoffman's anger: "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up." But we still have to ask whether the bar scene was filmed? Is it lying in some hard drive?
In the script, the Trumbel brothers and Egan have more confrontational scenes, but in the movie, the brothers just went to California, and they hesitated all the way, they were very afraid of this action in their hearts, and then there was Sandler's highlight moment of performance. They took Egan to the ATM and forced him to withdraw the money. Everything went smoothly, but after Egan pitifully explained something, the eldest brother was furious. The camera shot the fist raised by Egan from Egan’s perspective, but Before the fist fell, we heard Egan screaming in fear.
Then Egan began to run wildly. This segment was Sandler's most personal performance. He sprinted quickly while talking to himself in false voice, exactly the same as what he did in the previous movie "Little Nicky". This is Adam Sandler’s performance in "Private Love Disorder". Reading frame after frame, I feel very familiar: the state of explosion, strange wording, and heaving way of speaking are all his usual performance burdens. , But after combining these accurately, it is a wonderful performance, such as his cowering expression in "Private Love", and his crappy and cute tap dance in the supermarket aisle.
The first time I watched it, I only remembered the sad part of Barry, but when I re-watched this movie, I was surprised to find that the look and feel of it turned out to be so pleasant. Anderson and his royal photographer Robert Elsvit created bizarre and weird images, ubiquitous lens flares and overexposure, fascinating but not dazzling under precise scheduling, and interspersed with New York artist Jerry. M. Blake is like hypnotism, but also like a kaleidoscope of paintings.
Once the PTA decides to start making Barry Egan go well, he will not fail. In the phone booth in Hawaii, he finally mustered up the courage and almost nervously angered his sister, and in his garage, he picked up the iron again. Prying subdued all the gangsters, in Utah, he viciously confronted the mattress owner: "Don't mess with me anymore, the king of mattresses!" The domineering Trumbert shrank.
Let us also praise Emily Watson’s performance. She is as important as Sandler’s role. She is a real MDPG (Manic Dream Pixie Girl: usually only exists in film and television works to save the dead house forever. Big crazy dream girl), saved Barry Egan, but she is not that crazy, and she is a mature woman who knows what she wants.
Sandler's acting skills are good, but he has never performed as brilliantly as in "Private Love Disorder". Was he lucky or unfortunate to work with Anderson so early? Did this work give him the wrong idea, making him think that he could perform this kind of performance again in other works? Did Anderson use too much force and use up Sandler's talents?
"I don't know what the movie will look like when it comes out." Sandler said in an interview with Charlie Rose in October 2002. "I only know that I am 36 years old, and I have different ideas from when I was 26, although I don’t know what I would think when I was 46, but I understand that I should continue to work hard with my current ideas."
Sandler is now 48 years old and has reached the crossroads of his career. He is already very rich and hasn't made any outstanding works in recent years. But no matter what, we will always remember that he once played "Private Love Disorder": I have found the love of my life now, and I am strong now, beyond your imagination.
Unauthorized reprinting is prohibited
View more about Punch-Drunk Love reviews
