An Analysis of Punch-Drunk Love Film by Paul Thomas Anderson - Essay Example

The film tackles a number of issues on the personal life of the main character but presents it in a way that is obscuring and lagging that takes away from the focus of what the story is trying to convey in essence. It hints on family issues and the environment of growing up as the only boy in a family with 7 other sisters but it does not really tackle it full on. The topic remains hanging in the air and there never was any resolution to the end. Growing up with such a number of sisters does not in itself make any person less of a man nor would it necessarily mean that one is bound to have psychological issues.

To present the audience with the background that this alone serves as full explanation without having to give further details to support it would be nothing less than a shoddy argument. It leaves one feeling shorthanded instead of having the actual realization that such is so because this happened or that was the fact presupposing on other events. The film starts off with the introduction to Barry’s life laden with family woes in the form of seven overbearing sisters who each has a strong personality that overpowers that of Barry’s own insecurities. . Then there was another sister who tries to be more involved in his life and even going so far as to fix him up with her co-worker.

The idea immediately put Barry on the spot but in the scene where they are in a tug-and-pull whether it was going to be a good idea or not there was no concrete sense on whether Barry was really adamant to meeting somebody or he was just trying to play it coy to avoid embarrassment. Perhaps it was more of both just to avoid having to be ridiculed by her sisters. The most effective in conveying the relationship between the siblings was when all of Barry’s sisters kept on pushing him about the time the called him ‘gay boy’ and he got so mad that he threw a hammer to the windows.

Here the definite illustration of the character’s anger management issues shown through as he smashed the windows of the house nonchalantly then reacting by crying to Walter asking him to refer him to s shrink. To be more accurate, the story tries to inculcate that his family structure is perhaps the most distinctive part of Barry’s life that contributes to his repressed emotional issues. But further than the birthday scene there was really nothing else that points out to the theme other than his constant reminder for no one to tell his sisters he will be going to Hawaii.

Two minutes into the film one is already bored with the longshot of the camera into the streets and the ominous woman leaving her car without so much as indicating what needs to be fixed. There was of course the small piano that Barry literally had to sneak and grab from the streets although the whole exercise seemed to be pointless as there was nobody else in there. This object which turned out to be a harmonium as pointed out by Lena tried but failed to