50 First Dates

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2008)

I knew the concept and stars of the film from the trailer, so I suppose I had to give it a go, from director Peter Segal (Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps). Basically Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a wildlife veterinarian who lives in Hawaiian paradise, and he is afraid of commitment, and had a string of week long flings with quite a few women. Then he meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), both enjoy each other's company, and Henry feels the start of something serious. The next day however Henry approaches Lucy, and she fails to recognise her, and then he finds out about her short-term memory loss, Anterograde amnesia (here called 'Goldfield Syndrome') , so every day she wakes up doing the same thing, thinking it is the same day, and when she does find out the truth, she will forget the next day. So Henry is hanging out with Lucy's dad Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug (Sean Astin) to not only try and get in their good books to date Lucy, but try and help her realise her state, every day she wakes up, with a video tape. For a while it seems to be working, and they do finally sleep together, which causes screaming in the morning, but there is the point when Lucy overhears she is a burden to her family and Henry, so she wants to break up, and she is making sure she can't remember him by removing him from her journal (started it after the first time she saw the video). But thankfully Henry sees Lucy does remember him, she dreams about him, and paints him everyday, so there is a happy ending, and every morning she wakes up with a video of their wedding, and greeted by their daughter. Also starring Rob Schneider as Ula, Lusia Strus as Alexa, Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Keats, Amy Hill as Sue, Allen Covert as Ten Second Tom and Maya Rudolph as Stacy. Sandler is less goofy than normal, Barrymore is a character to have sympathy for, and there are some moments of slapstick and many one-liners, but I think this is slightly more dramatic in terms of the love story involved, but certainly entertaining. Worth watching!