When I picked up Guy Bennett’s Punch I was half expecting something along the lines of Girl Fight meets Fight Club. Instead I got something that was both tamer and wilder than I expected that once again proved that I shouldn’t be picking movies just by their poster or cover.
Ariel (Sonja Bennett, the director’s daughter) is a troubled girl of 18 (although I had her tabbed as closer to mid- to late-20’s). She lives with her father Sam (Michael Riley), a respected doctor who is just starting to get back into the dating scene after the death of his wife. If Ariel has her way, she’s rather keep her dad to herself. They have an odd relationship that while not incestuous could be seen as such from a casual observer. The opening scene shows the two sitting together in a public hot tub. Ariel is giving him a good, strong back rub. Upon seeing this I thought they were a couple. It wasn’t until the dialogue began that I realized these two were father and daughter. “Ick” was the gut reaction upon the revelation. But I think that was Bennett’s point. Ariel and Sam are too dependent on each other and it’s hindering both of their lives.
When Sam brings invites Mary (Marcia Laskowski), someone with strong girlfriend potential, over for dinner, Ariel immediately dismisses her as a threat. So what does she do? She punches Mary plum in the face. With that hit, the story is set in motion. It just so happens that Mary’s sister Julie (Meredith McGeachie) is an undefeated boxer, topless boxer that is, at a sleazy local bar. Julie confronts Ariel and the two have an immediate rivalry.
Given Ariel’s feisty nature and Julie’s profession, there’s the expectation that it will all culminate in a sensational fight between the two aggressors. At least that’s what Bennett wants you to think. Instead he does just the opposite and looks more introspectively at his characters and keeps the hitting and clobbering to a minimum. Perhaps it’s wrong to have expectations as you watch a film unfold, but Bennett lays forth some obvious foreshadowing that is never acted upon. Even if I hadn’t seen the cover to the DVD I still would have figured Ariel was heading towards some sort of showdown. In the film’s second scene she punches a girl out for little reason in the swimming pool locker room. Later, we see her defined back muscles as she does a few chin-ups in her closet. Clearly Ariel is capable of more than just a single sucker punch and a couple of minor tussles.
I’m all for the use of symbols in films, but only when they’re not forced. Not only do I feel some are forced in Punch, in at least one point Bennett is shown that he is grasping as he explains the meaning outright through dialogue. Sam gives Mary a bouquet of roses as an apology for the incident involving Ariel. They’re not your regular long-stemmed red roses but rather flowers that are dyed blue. The two talk about them for a moment and this is the phrase that essentially ends the conversation, “They’re beautiful but toxic.” Uggg. While it might have been a decent symbol to those who picked up on the parallel to Ariel, if you need to explain the meaning through exposition maybe it shouldn’t be there. It sounds bad and it dumbs the overall product down.
Even after Punch ended there were a lot of questions I still had about the characters and their backgrounds. Some mystery is good but a lot of what was missing would have explained what made them tick and act the way they did – especially in the case of Ariel as I have never seen someone quite like her before. And this is a shame because the characters were the most interesting thing about the film. They were unique and walked in areas of life I hadn’t even thought of before.
Punch is further proof that the perfect world would be one without marketing wizards coming up with posters and advertising campaigns that mislead the film’s potential audience into making them think it was something totally different from the product. Then I wouldn’t be setting myself up for the wrong type of film. Conflicting expectations or not, Punch is a flawed film that despite having some curiosities ends up looking too smart for its own good.
Punch Gallery
