Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 3.0
Cute, but very "Hollywood"
This is a cute bit of fluff. Adam Sandler is relatively harmless here, plays the part well, but literally anyone could have played his undemanding part, so his limited acting skills aren't taxed. The picture is somewhat unique in that I can't remember that many pictures where the male lead is essentially a spear-carrier. Rob Schnieder totally steals every scene he's in.Essentially, this movie is the flip side of "Groundhog Day", a much better movie. Here, instead of the protagonist being the only one aware of the unusual thing going on, the protagonist (Barrymore) is the only one who doesn't. Groundhog never attempted to explain why what was happening was, so that at the end when Bill Murray breaks out of the loop you accept it because his change in attitude seemed to indicate that the purpose of the time loop was achieved. In "50", there is an attempt to explain Barrymoore's problem, but by doing so too many paradoxes get introduced that distract from the suspension of disbelief that is necesary to buy the basic premise (for one, if you wake up every morning with a slate wiped clean as Barrymoore's is, then her experiences of the day can't build on what happened the day before, as they so clearly do. "Groundhog" didn't make that mistake). At the end of Murray's final "loop" day, everything that happened could have happened with everyone reacting to just that one day.Still, I would recommend this movie. It's cute, funny at times, poignant at others. It does have an intriguing concept. However, the end is totally Hollywood. It's like the producers/director/studio didn't trust the public so had to suddenly wrap the whole thing up in a nice package to insure a "sweet" ending. Problem is, that ending couldn't happen given what has gone beofre. Don't want to spoil the end, but there is nothing in what Sandler remembers about their relationship (she's happy when she paints after having met him each time, but there's Nothing to indicate that she attributes it to a previous encouenter with him) to make him have the epiphany he has while leaving for Alaska, nor is what follows believable given that Barrymoore forgets everything that happened the day before (even though she has the video to watch).Here's a better ending: When watching this and you come to the scene of Barrymoore painting the first time after the notebook is burned (you'll understand when you see the film), stop there. Don't watch the final 10 minutes. You'll then have a bittersweet ending which is true to the rest of the film and is much more satisfying, though not as sugar-coated.