50 First Dates leans towards sweet


Feb. 17, 2004, midnight | By John Visclosky | 20 years, 1 month ago


How many good movies (or even just fairly good ones) will Adam Sandler have to star in before he can make up for all the bad ones? None but the comedy gods can tell, and although 50 First Dates may not deserve to be chocked-up on the list of "good" Sandler films, it certainly isn't one of the bad ones.

Sandler plays Henry Roth, a laid-back, flower-shirted Hawaiian dude who is about as devoted to his animal patients (being a veterinarian) as he is to his bachelor livelihood. He makes it his business to get to know intimately each lonely tourist using the island paradise as a detour on the route to a better life. In short, he is the king of the one-night stand.

That's all before he meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), an endearing if somewhat odd girl who catches one whiff of Roth and admits to liking the rank of fish on his hands. They fall hard for each other, and, come the next morning, Roth is still there when Lucy wakes up. It would have been easier if he had just treated her like a tourist.

She has no idea who he is, and Roth discovers that Lucy has no short-term memory. Years ago, she was in a car accident with her father, and now, everyday she relives that 24 hour period, going to the same cafés, driving the same routes, painting the same walls, even reading the same newspaper. Protecting Lucy from her condition are her loving father Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug (a muscle-bound, lispy Sean Astin). What's most sweet about the movie is how guardedly Doug and Marlin protect Lucy, although by facilitating her disorder (feeding her the same paper every day, white-washing the same wall every night so she can paint it again the next day) they are unwittingly preventing her from moving on with life.

Unable to get Lucy off his mind, Roth decides to help her overcome her condition.

But don't be too disappointed die-hard Sandler fans. While Dates is more Wedding Singer than Little Nicky, it has its share of potty-jokes, including a pudgy Hawaiian native named Ula (Rob Schneider with a glazed over left eye and a coconut bikini). The script ultimately opts for sentimental over the perverse in the long run, and Sandler shows a wryly self-deprecating side of himself when he tells Lucy, upon her discovery that she is dating him, "Sorry I'm not better looking." It's a funny line, because it's honest.

Hiring Barrymore to be Sandler's main squeeze was also a good idea. Back in the days of The Wedding Singer she was a baby-faced infant who Sandler romanced to much comedic and romantic success. In Dates, the only difference is that she plays a slightly older, baby-faced young girl. The two have real chemistry and superb comedic timing. Astin and Clark are also fun to watch, though they may not get any of the best lines. They form the emotional core of the movie (it's small, but it's still there).

There certainly could be a better use of your time than seeing 50 First Dates on a Saturday afternoon, but there are definitely worse pursuits. It's tries hard to be sweet and it mostly is, except where Sandler fails to repress the odious dudeness of his Saturday Night Live pedigree. Someone needs to tell him to rein it in just a bit more once in a while.

50 First Dates is rated PG-13 for crude sexual humor and drug references.



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John Visclosky. John Visclosky is, suffice it to say, "hardly the sharpest intellectual tool in the shed," which is why he has stupidly chosen to here address himself in the third person. He's a mellow sort of guy who enjoys movies and sharing his feelings and innermost … More »

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