50 First Dates is on the small shelf.

Rating: 10/10 (19 June 2004)

First, let's forget about the facile comparison between this movie and Groundhog Day. Anything with Bill Murray in it is just to annoying to be taken seriously. Second, this is nothing like Groundhog Day, anyway. It's much better. And don't for an instant listen to the idiots who are comparing this movie to Memento, still the most overrated, vapid, pointless, gimmicky, dull, worthless movie ever to be hyped into the public psyche. But I digress.
Drew Barrymore is undoubtedly the most adorable woman in movies today. She's beautiful, bubbly, child-like and yet sexy. In short, she's perfect. If Meg Ryan is getting too old to do all the Meg Ryan movies, no worries. Drew is there, ready, willing and able to become America's cinema darling. And she's cuter than Meg.
But what about Sandler? Isn't he a crude, obnoxious, fart-joking, hooligan who isn't as funny as the thinks he is? See, you're still thinking about the OLD Adam Sandler. This is the new Adam. He's funny, sensitive, vulnerable, and yes, adorable. In short, he's matured as an actor, making the pairing of Adam and Drew the best romantic comedy pairing since the aforementioned Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.
The story is fairly simple. Drew has a problem with her short term memory, and Adam loves her but has to convince her to fall in love with him all over again every day. But the story isn't in the telling, it's in the watching. Drew and Adam flutter around each other like butterflies, dazzling in the sun, as the delicate journey from being strangers to becoming lovers is repainted every day. And yes, there are fart-jokes and vomit-gags enough to make any Sandler fan happy.
One thing that makes this movie so enjoyable is the amazing soundtrack. I can put the DVD on and simply listen while I surf, and the music alone is delightful. But what really makes the movie is the way it starts where you would expect it to, a typical Sandler movie, and then floats beautifully higher and higher into the realm of cinema gold. It isn't until about midway through the movie that you realize you've got more on your hands than you expected, and by the end of the movie, if you aren't crying you should ask for a refund on that therapy you've been taking, because you haven't learned to express your emotions at all.
Maybe half a dozen times a year I find a movie that enters the list of my favorites, and I can pull them off the shelf and love them all over again for years to come. I keep those DVD's on a separate shelf from the rest of my collection. It's a small shelf, in a different room from the rest of my collection. 50 First Dates is on the small shelf.