Paul Thomas Anderson is not your typical director -- and that is a very good thing. He has an interesting way of viewing the world and staging events. He has a gift for creating immensely complicated staging for his scenes and then pulling them off so that they seem thoroughly random. The long, unbroken opening scene of Boogie Nights remains as one of my favorite filmed moments.

The wonderful thing about Anderson's films is that they have the potential of going just about anywhere. Just like life itself, they are unpredictable. Take, for example, a scene late in his latest effort, Punch-Drunk Love. Adam Sandler's character, Barry Egan travels to Utah to confront a man he has never met, but who has been tormenting his life. A lesser film would have tried to be unexpected by forcing violence upon the audience. Instead, in Anderson's capable hands, the scene holds the quiet menace of two men who never expected to meet one another an who, frankly, really don't know how to handle it.

Punch-Drunk Love is said to have been inspired by a story of a man who discovered a loophole in a frequent flier promotion. By exploiting this loophole, this man spent $3000.00 and in return earned better than one milllion flier miles -- enough to never have to buy an airline ticket for the rest of his life.

As the film opens, our hero, Barry Egan, has just discovered this loophole. He calls the company to confirm the rules and then later finds himself in the grocery store, examining products and figuring all of the angles.

Egan owns his own company that specializes, as far as I can tell, in selling novelty toilet plungers and other odd items. He is the sort of man who arrives very early in the morning simply because he has nothing else to do.

On the surface, Egan seems timid and insecure. The unexpected dumping of a small piano near his office sends him nearly into a panic. He hides behind a door, sneaking a look around the corner to see if the piano is still there.

And yet, Egan's timid nature is all a facade. There is a rage boiling underneath the surface that compels Egan to kick out plate glass windows and destroy restaurant bathrooms. This is the sort of behavior we are used to seeing from Adam Sandler, but never has his rage been so honest, so lacking in any pretense of humor. This is a troubled man who, we sense, genuinely dislikes it when he loses control.

Egan meets a woman, Lena (Emily Watson), and he desperately wants to appear normal to her. At the same time, he's terrified at what his sisters, who continually berate him, might have said to her about his eccentric and violent personality. Meanwhile, Egan finds himself the victim of a scam involving a phone sex operator who won't leave him alone.

Like other Anderson films, Punch-Drunk Love weaves many different plot developments into one story. Seemingly completely unrelated events come together and resonate with repercussions that shape the entire story arc. In this film, Egan himself is the common thread throughout the various plot turns, as his budding relationship collides, literally head on, with his phone sex troubles.

Anderson's direction is, as expected. first-rate throughout and the film is simple a visual wonder, splashing color and contrasts in the way a modern artist covers his canvas. Furthermore, the acting is exactly on the right level. I've always suspected that there was more to Adam Sandler than some of his vulgar antics. He is playing a character that isn't all that far removed from his earlier efforts, but Barry Egan is much more real and sympathetic.

The trouble is that depsite having all of the right elements, nothing really happens in the film. I certainly don't expect Anderson to resort to trite and typical Hollywood antics, but I was hoping for a little something more. The only way I can think to describe it is that the film seemed to run a little too long for the story it tells, but far too short for the story I wanted it to tell. I didn't dislike Punch-Drunk Love, but I'm not sure I'd be interested in watching it again, either.