Trick or treat, you ask? This season we get a treat. Courtesy of Paul Thomas (P.T.) Anderson.The character driven, highly secretive director of “Magnolia,” “Boogie Nights” and “Hard Eight” is back. And once again he has created personalities we love, hate, understand, don’t understand, and want to have sex with.

In “Punch Drunk Love,” P.T.’s latest creation, Adam Sandler plays Barry, an emotional freak of a man who runs a small lamp making company in the heart of the San Fernando valley. He wears his new blue suit every day, takes endless shit from his seven overbearing sisters, hides from society at home and work, tries phone sex and likes his new harmonium.

One night Barry calls a phone sex line. Her name is Georgia. They have phone sex. She’s nice. The next day one of Barry’s sisters sets him up with a girl. Barry likes the girl, but is distracted by the fact that poor phone sex Georgia called back and needs some money. When Barry tells Georgia he can’t help her, she sends a few punks to LA to get the money in person. They do. Barry almost loses his new girl in the midst of the chaos. But don’t count Barry out yet. He rebounds to beat the thugs and win his girl.

It’s a simple story with well-crafted characters. Just what to be expected from P.T. Interwoven into the story and characters in “Punch Drunk Love” is a strong sense of two things: chaos and acceptance.

Everything in Barry’s life is chaotic. From the sounds he hears to the action around him. Sometimes it’s all too much for emotionally fragile Barry. And he doesn’t react well to when things become “too much.”

As far as acceptance, in Barry’s life he accepts the wrath of his brutish, angry, Jewish sisters. He accepts the fact that there was nobody else like him in the world and he will always be alone. Barry also accepts the fact that he can be taken advantage of because he is a nice guy. Barry’s life changes when he finally refuses to accept his lot. He stands up to his sisters. He deals with the phone sex thugs. But above all else, he realizes that with all his flaws and altered emotions, there is someone in the world who accepts him for who he is: a nice (slightly weird) guy. Acceptance by his girl brings a calming love to Barry’s life and allows him to finally (and most importantly) accept himself. And in the end, isn’t that what we all want?

My advise, see it more than once.