Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 3.0
Comedy and serious theme somewhat clash
When a movie takes a serious theme (in this case memory loss resulting from a serious accident) and tries to put it in a zany comdey, the disparate elements are prone to clash, and this movie is no exception. Drew Barrymore plays someone who lives each day with no memory of the previous day or any other day since an accident that virtually destroyed her short-term memory (a term yet to be made perfectly clear by movies dealing therewith). Then into her life come a character played by Adam Sandler, as well as some of his friends played by similarly comic oriented actors, including Rob Schneider. Sandler's character wants to court the affections of the woman deprived of short-term memory. But how can he do that when she can meet him one day but then he's a stranger to her the next because of her condition? Well, the movie never completely explains how he can, and leaves the audience wondering if the serious part of the movie has any authenticity to it whatsoever. The young woman's doctor insists that her condition has no capacity for improvement. Nonetheless she seeems to somehow assimilate some ongoing memory, of some sort, of her suitor. She will eventually paint pictures inspired by him on days before she's seen him that day, and later remember having dreams of him. Nonetheless her new memories past a day are so vague and shadowy that the audience never gets a hint as to how they might really develop a meaningful long term relationship. For that reason, suffice it to say (without giving away too much), they do embark on a course that stretches credibility in light of her condition and leaves the audience much wanting for explanation.Not surprisingly for a movie with Adam Sandler and others of similar comic talents, there's plenty of screwball comedy (physical and otherwise) thrown in. One of Sandler's hapless friends gets caught in the torrent of massive projectile vomiting by a walrus, for example. But the screwball physical comedy goes on to even involve the movie's tragic heroine. Part of her suitor's early attempts to get to her include posing as a robbery victim, as he expects the girl of his dreams to come along and hopefully rescue him. He get's Schneider's character to pose as the robber. Unfortunately for the latter hapless character, the movie's heroine turns out to be a member of neighborhood watch, who plays hardball with offenders. As a result, the poor fake robber, who is really a friend of the fake victim, gets beaten senseless for his supposed deeds just the same as if his crimes were for real. Watching the heroine exact such "justice" (as far as she knows) while also sympathizing with her serious medical condition is something of a schizophrenic experience. And it is just one example of the often conflicting serious and comic elements in this uneven but sometimes appealing movie.