Released 2004
Directed by Peter Segal
Starring:
Adam Sandler
Drew Barrymore
Sean Astin
Rob Schneider
This movie wins the GirlAlive.com prize for the Most Surprising Movie of 2004. I saw previews for this movie a few months before it opened, and I thought, "That looks funny." You have to understand that I like Adam Sandler and I think he's very funny. But I'm used to his movies being a certain level of stupid humor. And the advertisements for 50 First Dates made it look like it would live up to those expectations. It seemed like a movie about a ladies' man who was trying to seduce a woman with no short-term memory, with hilarity and wackiness ensuing. There was some of that, but there was so much more. I went into it expecting to laugh. But I didn't expect to cry.
The main character Henry was a typical commitment-phobic male until he falls in love with Lucy, who has suffered brain damage and has no short term memory. Every morning she wakes up thinking it is the day of her accident. She remembers everything before that, but can't retain anything after the accident. So that's the set-up. Part of it is a little bit of wacky humor, occasionally reminiscent of Groundhog's Day. But there are layers of meaning under this wacky comedy.
Every morning, Henry has to tell Lucy what happened to her, and explain that she doesn't remember the last year of her life, and explain that he loves her and she loves him. At one point he proposes to her one day, and the next morning, she beats the crap out of him, thinking he's an intruder. But he keeps trying. In the audio commentary, Drew Barrymore points out that this is a great metaphor for any love relationship. Love isn't like in most movies where you reach this one point of "falling in love" and everything after that is easy and perfect. It is work every day. It is falling in love every day. It is choosing to continue working on it every day, believing that love is worth it.
Another profound and unexpected aspect of this movie is that, just as the doctor predicts in the beginning of the movie, Lucy's condition is permanent. There is no magic cure. There is no miracle that makes Lucy remember Henry. It doesn't end with Lucy suddenly being cured, and then they can live happily ever after. Instead, Henry perseveres, and copes with her condition on a daily basis, and finds creative ways to cope with her disability. And he decides that the everyday struggle is a way of living happily ever after. I am deeply impressed that they decided to go that way with it. It would be the easy Hollywood ending for them to magically live happily ever after as the standard normal couple. But the writer, producers and director realized that that ending doesn't give realistic hope to anyone. Millions of disabled people live with their disabilities every day, with no miracle cure. That's reality.
There were great comedy moments. Rob Schneider and Sean Astin were both completely goofy. In between the emotional content, there were the silly Adam Sandler moments we all love. There are the standard juvenile jokes about wet dreams and walrus penises. But this is also the only movie I've ever seen that literally made me laugh and cry at the same time. There is a scene where Henry is listening to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys, which was Lucy's favorite song. He is singing along with it, as he cries his guts out and curses Lucy's father for giving him the cd. The emotion of the moment made me cry at the same time that Adam Sandler's performance made me laugh.
So if you saw the advertisements for this movie, you probably haven't given it a thought since it left the theaters. Rent it. Buy it. Whatever. It is one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in years. It's not Citizen Kane, but it is truly a nice and sweet movie.
