50 First Dates Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)February 19th, 2004
50 First Dates
Catch it on HBO
Reunited costars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore were charming and funny together in The Wedding Singer. As coproducers and costars in this film, they are still charming together, but the laughs are few and far between. I actually timed it - the shortest interval between the laughs was 15 minutes. The first laugh took a full 20 minutes to come after the opening. You might be able to improve this percentage if you find trained animal shenanigans actually funny, rather than merely smile-worthy. Any worth to this film is solely the province of the genuinely sweet romance that Sandler and Barrymore produce.
As my companion philosophically observed, "one thing they did not do is try too hard." I suppose for that we must be grateful. A few stale Rob Scheider episodes aside, the film honestly seems to be trying to be situationally funny, rather than gag-centric, and one must appreciate the restraint, considering the pedigree of its male lead. Perhaps he did learn a little something from Punch Drunk Love after all. The sweetness is better than the comedy, but we are not overly swamped with either. Stealing what scenes she can is Henry's (Sandler) marine park coworker Alexa (Lusia Strus), and she does an admirable job.
If you don't know the premise, it's sort of a neurological Groundhog Day; every day Barrymore's character Lucy awakens thinking it is the same day, that being the last day she was able to form new memories; her brain was damaged by a car accident. Thankfully, the film does not mock this affliction (well, unless the victim's loss rate is10 seconds instead of 24 hours) but instead turns into something that grounds an otherwise flighty gadabout (Sandler).
Besides the unhealthy patterns that the people who love her have established, Lucy seems to be in the best care possible for a condition such as hers. Somehow, Henry finds something very sexy about a tabula rasa such as Lucy. Besides a purpose in life, I am not sure what he gets out of their relationship, but movie romances are never really altogether forthcoming about the details, for it is the journey that is why we go see them. In this case, the journey is very sweet and very creative in its determination, but overall not hugely funny. The music is great, as are the credits.
However, if you want to see two people overcome insurmountable odds, and watch Sean Astin wildly overcompensate for three years and 9 hours of fat Sam Gamgee, with absolutely stunning Hawaiian locations as a backdrop, then you will probably find this movie a pleasant diversion. Or you could wait until it comes out on HBO and get your money's worth.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
