The island scenes in the 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love take place in Hawaii. Barry Egan, played by Adam Sandler, travels there to reunite with Lena Leonard, played by Emily Watson, after their increasingly unusual romance develops in Los Angeles.
The Hawaii section provides a striking contrast to the film’s tense earlier scenes. Barry’s frantic, enclosed life gives way to beaches, open skies, hotel corridors, and bright tropical settings. The change of location also reflects his emotional movement: he is still awkward and anxious, but he becomes more direct in pursuing Lena and confronting the people threatening him.
The film was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and released in 2002. Many Hawaii sequences were filmed on Oahu, including locations in and around Honolulu. That creates a common mix-up between the story’s setting and the production location: “Hawaii” is the canonical answer to where the characters go, while Oahu is the more specific island associated with much of the filming.