Surprisingly good

Rating: 6/10 (6 July 2004)

While I would concede that I am generally not a fan of Adam Sandler movies, I nevertheless found `50 First Dates' to be a thoroughly enjoyable and heartwarming movie with an intriguing plot and excellent acting on the part of the main characters and quite a significant number of the supporting cast.
Adam Sandler provides an excellent portrayal of Henry Roth, somewhat of a playboy who has shunned commitment but finds his one true love, a woman with a very unique mental state of mind. Sandler gives his character a unique dimension of warmth, likeability and strength that ensures that he emerges as one of the strong points of the movie. With the help of an excellent script for his character, Sandler gives his character a dimension of warmth and humanity that is both heartwarming and thoroughly pleasant to watch
Drew Barrymore is also excellent in her portrayal of Lucy Whitmore a sweet and kind person with a medical condition that plays a significant role in the movie. Barrymore provides her character with a wonderful dimension of warmth, kindness and sweetness that allows you to truly empathize with her and the dilemma she experiences. Barrymore really allows the positive dimensions of her character to shine through and this also contributes significantly to the movie's success.
The script writers have done a wonderful job of examining and portraying Lucy's medical condition with sympathy and humour. They make you have a unique degree of empathy and warmth toward the characters while at the same time not transforming the movie into a series or sad affair. The portrayal of the plot comes across as unique and balanced.
There are some minor flaws in the movie, in my opinion. The character development of Lucy's brother is rather unfortunate and is one of the weak points of the movie it would probably have been better if he were provided with greater substance and depth and less clichéd and annoying dialogue. Also Rob Schneider's character was given too much air time and became rather annoying as time progressed. He should have been more of a background character than he was. I agree with what another reviewer on this site said about unnecessary over the top humour and accents it really would have been much better without all that and it does detract somewhat from the high quality of the movie
But these flaws do not undermine the heartwarming and beautiful plot of the movie, the wonderful acting and the flowing interaction between Sandler and Barrymore. I would highly recommend this movie just fast forward the `yuck' bits