Bad Start Tanks Effort

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2004)

There are some ridiculous scenes at the beginning of `50 First Dates' that for all intents and purposes tank any opportunity there might have been for us to love this movie. Forever after we wince often for fear Adam Sandler will pull an over-the-top Jerry Lewis moment, disturbing our attempt to understand  or at least ponder - Drew Barrymore's problem. And her problem, one of a permanent short term memory loss rendering her incapable of recalling her yesterdays, is pretty fascinating.

Lucy Whitmore's (Barrymore) father and brother have built a world for her that is as touching as it is odd  they preserve a particular day for her to relive every morning. Since, like Guy Pearce in the phenomenal `Memento' of a few years back, she cannot create new memories and every day is a new day. Thus they go through tremendous effort to see that she is not made upset by essentially anything new in her life.
Alas, this is not `Memento'. Absolutely none of the gritty realism, sheer guts of the main character as he searches for truth, none of the mystery or in particular the drive on the part of the memory challenged person to compensate for their new-found handicap is ever presented. Lucy just wafts along, borne on the breeze created by the fanning of the spectators in her life.
`50 First Dates' is a disappointment in that generally films not offered for wide release yet starring some really talented actors often have a chance to be very good. So we suspected this might be a sleeper, perhaps in the vein of the very interesting 2002 Sandler effort `Punch Drunk Love'. But no, Sander has reverted to form.
Granted, he shows some real talent and even sensitivity in acting as a talented and caring young aquarist. But when it comes to comedy Sandler has one dimension, and it is from the Jim Carey School of Goofiness. So we get totally inappropriate outbursts, sort of juvenile and most definitely silly. Consider two particular examples of this in the film. At the very beginning Henry (Sandler) concocts an enormously unbelievable tale designed to assist in brushing off a one-night stand. Later in a restaurant he illustrates (in front of Lucy) the hammiest crying jag recorded by anyone in recent memory.
Drew Barrymore, on the other hand, is such a treat to watch. She has a few energetically comic moments and plays her character very believably, given her opportunities. But for the most part Sandler acts as a moth to her flame, which has the effect of diluting, not enhancing, her performance. Ms. Barrymore can equal the best work of any of the good young actors available today and can be admired for trying just about anything role.

There are enough quality moments in `50 First Dates' to allow that it has some appeal. But in no way is it of the caliber of `Memento', and it should be quickly forgotten.
Rating: 2.5 Stars.