Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 5.0
i loved it before i knew i should
I had avoided this film though it got very good reviews (from critics as unenthusiastic as I have usually been about Adam Sandler). Then, by accident, I happened to catch the film on t.v. - on a channel that interrupted it with very few commercials. Not only was it charming and realistic, it was funny in a way modern films seldom are - the characters themselves were interestingly written and well-played (I was also stunned by Rob Schneider - and the cameo by Dan Ayckroyd - sp.? - was lovely and well-researched). And it had a quirky and very current topic: traumatic brain injury, which was treated humorously and sensitively but not made into a caricature or a joke. There was no guarantee the story could possibly end happily. I had already decided to order the DVD for a friend's birthday (someone who also turned up her nose at the mention of Adam Sandler) and ordered a copy for myself; then I read a review (no, I can't recall who was interviewed.) The interviewer asked this film scholar, "Why aren't there any good romantic films - on the order of 'It Happened One Night' or some of the Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn or K. Hepburn/Spencer Tracy classics?" And the interviewee said, well, there aren't many, but there are a few - and "50 First Dates" was one of them! B. Firger, Oakland, CA