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Fifty First Dates review
2004.02.29 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole
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Fifty First Dates is Barrymore and Sandler's second pairing, after The Wedding Singer. [official site] |
I am not an Adam Sandler fan. I've only seen bits and pieces of his other films. I enjoyed him well enough on Saturday Night Live, but not enough to pay money to see his brand of juvenile humor. Fifty First Dates is full of that brand of humor, but it also has an amazing amount of heart.
Sandler has come to specialize in this sort of thing, the gross-out comedy with a heart of gold, but Fifty First Dates really hits the mark. Credit certainly must go to Drew Barrymore, who plays Sandler's memory-impaired love interest with a nutty sweetness. I don't count myself as much of Drew Barrymore fan either, but is there another actress who could have played this role with the same genuineness, quirkiness, and timing?
Director Peter Segal has given us forgettable comedies like Nutty Professor 2, My Fellow Americans, and Naked Gun 33 1/3. And he's done only slightly better when he's directed Sandler in Anger Management and Chris Farley in Tommy Boy. So perhaps Segal, Sandler, and Barrymore got lucky when they hooked up with screenwriter George Wing. Who is Wing? What has he done before? Nothing, apparently. The guy's a blank slate.
The improbable plot of the film sees Sandler as Henry, a charming marine biologist in Hawaii who has such a problem with commitment that he specializes in quickie affairs with lonely female tourists. He meets Barrymore's Lucy having breakfast at a local restaurant and makes a date to see her again... only to discover that she has suffered head trauma in a car accident and believes that every day is the same day, so she doesn't remember him from one day to the next.
Having encountered the one woman in the world he wouldn't have to con to escape, Henry falls in love. He begins to contrive encounters with Lucy, even tho her father and brother quickly catch on and try to stop him. Blake Clark as Lucy's dad is terrific, but Sean Astin as the brother is just camping it up with his simultaneous muscle-flexing and lisping. This is underscored by Rob Schneider, in native islander makeup, who provides many of the juvenile laughs.
It is the sincerity and sweetness of Henry and Lucy's story that draws us in. Henry the liar finds real redemption in being the one with the guts to tell Lucy the truth. It's remarkable how the romance is shown to grow, given that Lucy doesn't. (They make a video for her to watch every morning and help her create a journal.) The story hits all the romantic comedy plot points, right down to the misunderstanding and rejection followed by the change of heart and reconciliation.
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...instead of collapsing... the story performs a clever twist and sticks the landing. |
Then, amazingly, instead of collapsing under the weight of all the improbability it has built up, the story performs a clever twist and sticks the landing. The final scenes avoid letting our protagonists off the hook but give us confidence in their futures nevertheless. It's sweet and sad and satisfying all at once... and a far cry from a traditional Hollywood happy ending.
f e e d b a c k
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