Masterpiece, overlooked by many because of anti-Sandlerism.

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2004)

MY RATING: *** / ****
Contains extreme battle violence and tentacle rape. (Maybe.)
'50 First Dates' tells of an unusual romance being played out in beautiful Hawaii. Adam Sandler plays Henry, a marine biologist (I love Hollywood) who has no problem with the ladies. He falls head over heels in love with Lucy (Drew Barrymore,) who ever since a car accident a year ago, loses all memory of what she did that day. In other words, Adam's going to have to meet her and make her fall in love with him each day like the first day. Ouch.
Adam Sandler comedies are unique in that I have hated every single one of them for the first ten minutes, and then I somehow 'tune in' to the humour and end up enjoying the movie. 50 First Dates has other familiar Sandler elements, such as Rob Schneider doing things no other star would possibly want to add to their credentials, and other scenes involving post - Farrelly brothers grossout gags (any comedy these days involving a walrus is going to have it vomiting or ejaculating or both.) These don't get in the way of the film's purpose, though, which is surprisingly spiritual.
Analogies have been drawn between this and Groundhog Day, and that's not such a bad comparison. This film is Groundhog Day in inverse, that is, only one character is living out the same day of her life over and over, and nothing she can do about this will make a difference tomorrow. 50 First Dates is masterful in its exploration of this premise. We grow to understand the rules of this game much like we would a new sport. In fact, I grew to understand it so well that I had a very confused couple of hours immediately after the movie readjusting to the real world. I love that feeling.
As we grow more confident of our grip on the ideas presented, the film uses this device to ask some seriously deep questions about human relationships. How we'd react if such an unusual situation arose, and how we'd let our humanity save the day. Henry gets to have a unique insight into both himself and the woman he loves by seeing that every day he finds something new and wonderful to love about her. Many couples' favourite memories are of their first meetings. Ever stop to wonder why that is? You won't after you see this. Some might call this Paul Ver Hoeven syndrome, after another famous director whose films explore moral problems that don't really exist yet, but I think 50 First Dates treads the line between fairy tale and drama with verve and intelligence.
Of course, the film relies on us believing that Henry and Lucy could really fall in love every day, and Adam Sandler - Drew Barrymore give fine emotional performances, especially Sandler, who's more known for his distanced, slightly vicious characters. In 50 First Dates he wears his heart on his sleeve, and is all the better for it. Barrymore has the easier role to play here - her situation is so unusual that nobody really knows how anyone would act in it - but nonetheless we see what has rocked Henry's world. The supporting cast are up to the job too, despite being slightly lumbered with standard quirkiness (the camp bodybuilding brother, the old sea dog father, the I-don't-know-how-to-summarise-her colleague.) The choice of location is perhaps too postcard-perfect to really give the romance credibility, but watching dolphins and sunsets so beautifully photographed can hardly be constituted as a 'mistake.'
All in all, I rate 50 First Dates very highly. It forced me to think deeply and quickly, and in today's movie industry, such a mental workout is rare without having to go to your local independent picture house and put up with your ten-a-penny artistic geniuses. I have to take off one star from the perfect four to reflect the disappointing ending, and that it is, at the end of the day, an Adam Sandler film. Sorry Adam. You came so close to eliminating my shadows of doubts.