50 First Dates

Adam Sandler has the most successful film career of any Saturday Night Live performer.  Adam Sandler comedies are often savagely attacked by critics who can be a little high-minded and dismissive of them.  I think it is important to look a little deeper as to why something works or does not.  Sandler created a production company called "Happy Madison" which is named after his first two films "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore", neither of which I have seen yet.  Happy Maidson produces most of Sandler's comedies (and some which star other SNL veterans like David Spade) and it has allowed him to give a lot of opportunities to friends both in front of and behind the camera.  This can be both an asset and a hindrance.  For example, Sandler has made several films with director Dennis Dugan who often does broad comedy well but whose films struggle balancing those with the more dramatic scenes, which can make the films seem like a collection of gags.  But it also has led to Sandler making a lot of films with old SNL buddy Rob Schneider who often plays a wacky supporting character and has perhaps his funniest character ever in 50 First Dates as Ula, a Hawaiian who is a little too blunt for his own good.  

As a whole Sandler's comedies have a lot of broad humor some of which works for me.  Generally the more gross a gag is the more I will be put off by it but I like it when a film has good verbal play.  Overall I like Sandler's dramatic work a lot, especially when his characters are enriched by his comedic instincts like in Funny People and Spanglish. But Sandler's broad comedies keep a lot of people employed and audiences usually enjoy them.  While I would not recommend The Waterboy or Just Go With It, I certainly laughed during them.

Sandler's films are often cast with some of Hollywood's most famous and attractive leading ladies.  Kate Beckinsale, Brooklyn Decker, Marisa Tomei, Jessica Biel and Katie Holmes have played Sandler's wives/girlfriends.  Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman, both big stars at the time the film was made, actually perform a contest in front of a bunch of men to see who is hotter in Just Go With It.  At no point during either of the Grown Up movies did I believe Salma Hayek was actually Sandler's wife but she was so much fun in the films it did not matter.

As of this writing Sandler has made three romantic comedies with Drew Barrymore: The Wedding Singer (1998), 50 First Dates (2004) and Blended (2014).  Each of the three has a unique setting that the films make clever use of.  Wedding Singer is set during 1985.  50 First Dates is in Hawaii and Blended is in South Africa.  Of the three 50 First Dates is the most appealing.  Sandler and Barrymore make a good screen pairing because they both have an innate sweetness and goofiness but also have strong comedic timing.  Sandler's persona is often the average looking guy who succeeds in spite of his limitations and Barrymore often plays people who are smart but a little lost.  In The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates both make kindness seem cool and tease each other in a funny but not cruel way.

Spoilers below:

50 First Dates, which is set in Oahu, has a novel concept.  A year before the event of the film, Drew Barrymore's character, Lucy, was in a car accident on her father's birthday.  As a result of the accident Lucy developed anterograde amnesia, which means she cannot create long term memories and only remembers her life up to the day the accident (which was her father's birthday), but not the accident itself.  The film structures this by having Lucy wake up each morning thinking it was the day of the accident and she goes to the same place for breakfast each morning and wears the same outfit, a pink shirt and white pants.  Lucy can remember events throughout the day but when she wakes up the following morning she has no memory of the preceding day.  To avoid causing her more pain Lucy's father Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug (Sean Astin) recreate the events of Marlin's birthday each day and try to convince her it still is that day.  Henry likes to seduce female tourists because he does not have to commit to them, meets Lucy and the two connect but Henry has to navigate the challenge of dating someone who always forgets him.

Peter Segal directed 50 First Dates, as he did Sandler's film Anger Management the previous year and I feel the film works because it balances the comedic elements with a true warmth, enhanced by the film's locations.  The soundtrack has a lot of older hits like "Over The Rainbow" "True", and "Love Song" that are remade with an island mix.  The first half of the film is the funniest, opening with an entertaining montage of women (and Sandler buddy Kevin James) describing how Henry romanced and then dumped them on their trips to Hawaii and then cuts to Henry hilariously breaking it off with his latest lady friend by pretending to be a secret agent.  From there we see Henry, who is really a marine veterinarian, at work.  Sandler creates a nice rapport with a walrus but his getting one to vomit on his Eastern European androgynous assistant Alexa feels a little mean since Alexa seems to just to be trying to fit in.    

Henry's first meeting with Lucy has all the feel of a successful first date in which two people let their guard down because they feel comfortable together.  Segal needed to make this scene work since the film hangs on it.  If we do not want to see these two people together again then we will not care about Henry's efforts to connect with her.  Lucy, who was an art teacher before her accident, has an openness that cuts through Henry, who initially did not want to speak to her because she was local.  The date has a very funny punctuation in the parking lot in which Lucy is quietly dancing out of the excitement of meeting Henry and in the background a car pulls away to show Henry doing a similar goofy dance with his back turned.  Sandler's willingness to be vulnerable gives the scene its heart and captures the way people feel when they unexpectedly meet someone they feel might be right for them.

Lucy would seem to be a perfect fit for Henry's love and leave 'em lifestyle but the film keeps us on Henry's side by having Henry just want to spend time with her and doing so in a fun way.  Once Henry realizes Lucy's situation the films shows us montages of Henry betting he can get her to have breakfast with him, and mostly striking out.  Then it moves to him trying to meet her on the road which leads to a really funny moment in which Lucy attacks Ula (when Henry is pretending that Ula is beating him up).  

Segal also stages a series of scenes set to the Wings "Another Day" in which Marlin and Doug recreate Lucy's day to protect her (eating birthday cake, re-watching the Sixth Sense which Lucy gave him, and after she goes to bed, repainting a wall that she had painted during the day). The tired end of the song shows that while this routine is working in the short term it is wearing on Marlin and Doug.  Clark charms as Lucy's weathered fisherman dad who is overprotective at first but comes to appreciate that Henry is good for Lucy.  Sean Astin creates an original character as a narcissist steroid abusing bodybuilder with a lisp who brings big laughs every time he is onscreen, especially when Henry easily fends off one of his attacks (by flipping him and standing on his arms, a move I had never seen before).  The funniest line of the film is when Marlin makes fun of Doug's lisp ("My thon is a thychotic"). Marlin, who is a salt of the earth type is really put off by his son using drugs to enhance his strength.

The film never explains how Marlin and Doug, who are fisherman who may be on the water for extended trips, are getting by since they now have to be home all the time.  I also think the stakes of the accident seem small.  If for example Marlin had been injured in the accident too and now had an injury he was trying to cover up or had to explain it could have added more weight.  Lucy's mother has passed and if the accident had been what took her (and Marlin and Doug were constantly making sad excuses for her absence) it would have had more weight though in the later scenes it would be heartbreaking for Lucy to learn about her mother's passing each day.  

There is a wonderful sequence when Lucy realizes the date is different and the film dramatizes why Marlin goes to so much trouble to protect her, since it devastates her.  Marlin and Lucy have a  touching scene on a dock in which he empathizes with her, feeling all her pain in the moment.  Marlin takes Lucy to the institute in which we meet Dan Ackroyd, perfectly cast as her verbose doctor, who provides some additional exposition.  Beneath it all Marlin carries the pain that this is only temporary and the next day will be a complete reset.  

Henry observes all of this and brings up a thought I had which is that the accident is recent enough that Lucy can be fooled by the routine but what will happen when, as Henry states, enough time passes that Lucy can see she is older but also when Marlin is older and gone how will she get by?  This leads to the more poignant second half of the film in which Henry to creates a videotape which is a beautiful and funny tool to bring Lucy up to date.  Using Ula to play Lucy is funny for the audience but also shows Lucy that Henry makes her laugh.  Henry realizes that Lucy needs to cry but it actually gives her some tools to move forward in life.  It keeps the film from being too repetitive.  I find the film Groundhog Day good but a little tiresome because it replays many scenes from different perspectives, none of which I found too compelling (I recognize this is a minority opinion).  I also don't really enjoy Bill Murray as a lead (I didn't much like either Ghostbusters film or several others he has done but I like his supporting work in Rushmore and Wild Things), but that is a whole other story.  Additionally I find the first half of Edge of Tomorrow too repetitive for my taste.  

The film here goes into Lucy and Henry's unique courtship as Henry uses the video to help Lucy fall in love with him each day.  Lucy starts wearing different clothes each day to signify that she is out of the pattern and each day is a new adventure.  The film does not quite explain how Henry is able to accomplish this while also going to work but here is where the film makes the best use of the romantic Hawaii locations.  Henry even writes and sings Lucy a song on his ukulele.  Ula's appearance in the tank when Henry and Lucy finally get it on does not make much sense but is a funny punctuation to a scene in which Henry gets some help from his walrus buddy.

I wondered how Lucy is able to have such deep feelings since the film holds hard to Lucy having a memory reset each day but the screenwriters come up with a good explanation.  Lucy started a diary after first seeing the video as her own personal way of moving forward.  Lucy is probably referencing her diary after seeing the video so even if she cannot form new memories, she is aware of this and can read how he felt the day before and connect to it more closely.

In romantic comedies one of the parties (usually the man) makes a mistake at the end of the second act and the couple breaks up to then reunite in an emotional climax.  In 50 First Dates Here this happens when Henry falls asleep with Lucy and then she has a funny but sad scene when she freaks out by having a stranger in her bed.  The sense here is that, even though she watches the video (which we do not see), the bad start to the day makes Lucy feel like a burden to Henry and she breaks up with him, and he respects her enough to help her remove memories of him from her diary.  The breakup comes from a sweet moment of selflessness on Lucy's part.

When Marlin and Doug come to say goodbye to Henry Doug, who has no inhibitions, hilariously asks Henry for a gift back that Doug just gave Henry.   I must say, I applaud the casting director who thought of Sean Astin for this part as his characters are usually pretty earnest and straight laced (Sam the Hobbit or even Lynn McGill in Season 5 of 24).

The "message" from Marlin gives Henry using the Beach Boys CD is a little oblique and I think it is asking a lot for Henry to interpret that as anything but a memento of the time Henry was with Lucy but the reunion scene it leads to is touching as the film sticks to its own rules but has allowed Lucy to dream of Henry and then paint him even though she cannot remember him.  I assume that she is aware of her condition and the film shows her managing it by giving a tour she was probably familiar with before.  Lucy may have a disability but she is not letting it define her.

The closing of the film moves the  story forward a few years and and the daily video now shows Lucy and Henry's wedding (officiated by Ula who has some good lines).  A home movie would not have the back and forth editing shown there but that's a minor quibble.  Segal and Barrymore do a nice job with the reveal of Lucy looks out the window and we see they are now in Alaska, with a daughter.  Old fisherman Marlin's presence is a nice touch too.  

50 First Dates is a cute romantic with a true inventiveness and a lot of scenes of people being kind to each other.  It makes for a good film to enjoy on Valentine's Day. ****