What put me off the film for years? Combination of title and Adam Sandler, who is rather good and suited to role of man who has difficulty communicating - perhaps as a result of seven overbearing sisters. Emily Watson is also fabulous as his girl. But what seriously marks this film out is the direction (some really long takes, for example) and Robert Elswit's wonderful camerawork (he has photographed all of Anderson's films) and a joyous riot of a score, by Jon Brion (also Magnolia) which shifts from insistent percussion to diddly and quirky synthesizer notes into harmonium, waltz, Hawaiian slide guitar and funny Nilsson number 'He Needs Me'.
The score itself provides much of the humour, but so do we love Sandler's way of sidling out of a room. Also the way he lies to Watson, then gradually unlies.
So we really need to rewatch There Will Be Blood and appreciate it as humorous, the way that New York audiences have reportedly begun to do.
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