Review
50 first dates
Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore and Rob Schneider
Directed by Peter Segal
Opens Friday, February 13
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Even if both Memento and Groundhog Day hadn’t mined the memory loss-time loop genre for most of its dramatic and comedic potential, Adam Sandler’s new riff on the subject, 50 First Dates, would still be an affair best forgotten. That Sandler tries to stretch a full-length feature out of a script that contains enough laughs to sustain a 3-minute trailer – with an old premise – is all the more bothersome. Were the execs who green lit this feature suffering from their own amnesia?
For those who can remember, 50 First Dates sees Sandler reunited with his Wedding Singer costar, Drew Barrymore. This time around Barrymore plays Lucy, a damsel in distress plagued by an even greater evil than an asshole boyfriend from the ’80s. After surviving a dangerous car accident, Barrymore’s kind Hawaii local loses her short-term memory – every day transports her back to the day of her accident with no recollection of anything that followed. This unfortunate fact becomes the cruelest joke for Henry Roth (Sandler), a womanizing veterinarian who lives on the island and falls hard for Lucy.
A former commitment-phobe who made sure not to get involved with women who would be around for more than a few days, Henry made it a habit to only sleep with tourists. When he meets Lucy, he decides to devote his life to making her remember who he is.
Unlike Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray’s fate to relive the same day over and over again forces his character to evolve through a series of hilarious episodes, 50 First Dates is yet another template for Sandler to inject his hit-and-miss humour into a simple scenario. Unfortunately the minor characters – who include the overweight Hawaiian short-order cook nicknamed Tattoo Face, the foulmouthed local sidekick (played by Rob Schneider), the sexually ambiguous co-worker and Lucy’s beefcake-wannabe brother (Sean Astin) – are more odd than funny. Much of the comic punch is finally left to Schneider’s making repeated comments about his balls and Sandler snickering at his German assistant.
Even the romance itself misses. While the premise of a guy wooing a girl every day of their lives is momentarily sweet, it’s mostly insane and depressing. In the end, the premise of 50 First Dates is more heartbreaking than amusing. And watching Drew Barrymore’s Lucy repeatedly break down upon learning her fate (Henry shows her a video every day to explain the past), you can’t help but feel that everyone – Lucy, Henry and us – would’ve been better off if none of our paths had crossed. |
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