Surprisingly Wonderful

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2005)

Against my will, my own good reason, and all else that is dear to me, I was forced to watch this film. Before seeing this movie, I honestly thought that, at its best, it would be yet another Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore chick flick (and please excuse the seemingly misogynistic use of this term) that is funny, but mostly just sweet enough to make Kleenex manufacturers rich and boyfriends all over the world miserable. Needless to say, I went in believing, with all my heart and soul, that it was a capitalist ploy designed to ruin my day AND charge me ten bucks for my misery.
But I was wrong.
Well, I mean, I was right about the Kleenex thing (my girlfriend cleaned out two boxes before reaching for the beach towels), and true, it was incredibly saddening, but for altogether different reasons than I could ever have imagined.
"50 First Dates" succeeds because it is sweet and charming and all the things that a good chick flick should be, but more importantly, because it has an incredible message beneath its epidermis-thin layer of pop-culture gloss. Yes, it is about love, and yes, it has moments of cheese, but never so much that it makes you beg for crackers; it is, above all, a movie about the tragedies that befall us and what we do to overcome them. It is about believable miracles in life, the things we do to make life worth living rather than the magical things that happen to save us from having to fight for our own happiness. And it is about fighting for happiness. How do you find a way to live your life, to love, to have a family, and to learn about the most important things when your condition forces you to never remember any of those things? If memory is all that we have of our small, sometimes pathetic, lives, then what happens when we don't even have that? And, as clichéd as it may appear, this movie does an incredible job showing us that life does go on, and that all you really need is, and please hold your gags, LOVE.
This is a film about a man who loves a woman so much that he's willing to spend the rest of his days making her fall in love with him - day after day after day, and he does this for the simple fact that she brings meaning to his life. For every day he loves and needs her, he will do everything in his power to make her feel the same way about him. Are you soaked in cheese yet? Because I am. But who cares? Sandler and Barrymore make it real enough for the audience to ignore the layers of dairy product and still appreciate the powerful feeling of love that transcends this movie beyond the usual Hollywood fromage that keeps guys like myself at a safe distance.
Watch it. Bring tissues and towels and boyfriends. As for you apprehensive men's men out there - good cheese is always healthy for your diet.
Rating: 9/10