4. Punch-Drunk Love
A common theme among romantic comedies is the way that love can bring a person out of a hole in a particular part of their lives. Paul Thomas Anderson was able to take Adam Sandlers manic energy that was so evident in his comedies like Billy Madison and The Waterboy to tell the tale of the ultimate self loather in Punch Drunk Love. Sandlers character is a character with seemingly no purpose in life. He collects these frequent flyer miles from pudding cups, yet has no place to go despite the accumulation of them. His is manipulated by not only his sisters but by phone sex hotline operator. It takes a woman to make him realize how happy he is in life. Anderson shows us his journey through the use of symbolism and color. Sandler constantly wears blue, his office is blue. This highlights his emotions with the color blue. His loneliness is highlighted with the color white. White is bare and singular which is always in the background of Sandlers character. To see the true joy of finding someone to love, I point to the scene in the supermarket. He finally has a destination to go with those frequent flyer miles. There is a renewed passion that has never occurred in his life. When Lena, played by Emily Watson, kisses him, he adds the color of red to his blue suit by switching his blue tie with a red tie which is a color that Lena always dons. Red symbolizes love and the tie is close to the heart. Through love, he finds a way to become stable emotionally. This is a melancholic romantic comedy told by a master filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson.