Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 4.0
A Little Silly - but Sweetly Romantic
I had real reservations about this movie at first. It seemed not only an overly-silly movie - but one with a questionable plot line. A guy is dating a girl with brain damage, and then has fun taking advantage of her?Still, I love Hawaii and thought I would give it a try. Slowly but surely the tale sucked me in. Adam Sandler plays a playboy aquarium worker. Each week he takes on another visiting woman, wines and dines her, then sends her on her way. He likes the short term romances with no memories.Suddenly into his life falls Drew Barrymore, a local woman with a past. It turns out she was in a car accident which damaged her long term memory ability. She wakes up every morning thinking it's a specific day. She remembers clearly her life up until that point - but she can't make any new memories. So she'll enjoy and have fun on her day with Adam, but when she wakes up the next morning, she'll forget all about him and once again think it's the morning of that same day. Unfortunately for her father, that day is his birthday, so he is stuck with birthday cakes every single day.Her father and brother (played hilariously by Sean Astin - Sam from Lord of the Rings) have tried various techniques over the weeks and found that she does best when they simply play along with her faulty memory. They give her an old newspaper, take her birthday present, watch her favorite movie with her, and so on. They expect to have keep doing this with her, every day, until she either heals or they pass away.You can see pretty quickly that this wasn't a great long time plan, but you also feel for the dad and brother. They obviously love Drew and want to keep her happy. They resist at first when Adam begins to get into her life, but they realize how much the two care for each other. Adam starts to make "wake up videos" for Drew, so that when she first wakes up in the morning she can be gently brought up to date with the life she isn't able to remember.There are a few "silly / gross" jokes in here - almost as if the movie was made for young teens - but then there are also a number of sexual jokes / puns that are probably not appropriate for that age group. I thought in that sense that Wedding Singers was much better done, with an awesome balance of maturity and fun. This movie slides just a little bit into the immature category.But that is vastly made up for by the gorgeous Oahu scenery. If you're lucky enough to make it to Hawaii, you can see many of the locations used in the movie. Sea Life Park might be a good spot to add to your list! Locals also say that the Ula character is pretty dead-on as far as the laid back, casual attitude that is prevalent here.I've watched this movie MANY times and it definitely has become one I enjoy greatly. There are many great lines, and the inappropriate jokes are easy to gloss over. Well recommended!