An imperfectly good movie

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2015)

Fifty first date has a lot of potential. In fact, in some sense, the movie succeeds in realizing the core theme: persistent and undying love for someone in spite of the daunting condition of a short term memory; nothing hurts more than to be forgotten by someone you love. Moreover, the creative measures the protagonist undertakes to help his lover remember him are moving and touching. Overall, the dramatic and romantic elements of the movie are wonderful, but the comedic elements are typical Sandler humor extraneous to the film's essence. For many reviewers, Sandler's style of humor has a corrosive effect on the film, but I think the strength and message of the film endures in spite of its flaws. I would add this this movie would easily be the best romantic movie had Sandler decided to make this into a romantic drama than a romantic comedy. This doesn't mean he should do away with any comedic elements. There were some decent ones, but he could easily get ride of a lot of bad comedic moments. Moreover, Sandler is capable of doing drama as evidenced by his decent performance in drama movies like Reign Over Me and Punch Drunk Love. It would have been one more decent drama performed by Sandler. Unfortunately, it is too late and the flaws will remain permanent parts of the film. Nonetheless, I still think this is a good movie which is quite underrated due to the recent and understandable backlash against Sandler.