Sentimental Sundays: Revisiting "Punch-Drunk Love" is sweet, sobering and strange

"If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain, if you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain..."

If you accept the fact that love doesn't always look how you'd expect.

One movie that drives home the point that love, like people, isn't cookie-cutter is Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love." Here are three out-of-the-ordinary ways that Barry, the main character played by Adam Sandler, awkwardly expresses affection for his love interest, Lena, played by Emily Watson.

1) "I'm lookin' at your face and I just wanna smash it... You're so pretty."
2) "At that restaurant, I beat up the bathroom... I'm sorry."
3) "Lena. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I left you at the hospital. I called a phone-sex line... I called a phone-sex line before I met you, and four blond brothers came after me and they hurt you, and I'm sorry. Then I had to leave again because I wanted to make sure you never got hurt again. And I have a lot of puddings, and in six to eight weeks it can be redeemed. So if you could just give me that much time, I think I can get enough mileage to go with you wherever you go if you have to travel for your work. Because I don't ever want to be anywhere without you. So could you just let me redeem the mileage?"

In addition to showcasing lines that are awkwardly sincere, the "Punch-Drunk Love" script leaves room for a swallowable dose of comedy and romance (likely proportional to amounts found in real-life relationships). Take for example this quote from Barry, which is a precursor to a butt-kicking he gives the "mattress man": "I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine."

One of the many lessons we seem to learn and relearn in love and in life is that we must allow each day, each experience to take shape its own way. Regardless of love's look, sounds or shape, it remains real - and, in the movie "Punk-Drunk Love," love's reality is sweet, sobering and strange.