Review of 50 First Dates (2004) by Madison H — 22 Sep 2013

Refusing to succumb to the tiresome and repetitive featured romance films, Director Peter Segal invented a well-rounded and inventive storyline for the film "50 First Dates". Contributing to the roaring success was the help of the sarcastic but romantic Adam Sandler, as Henry Roth, and an emotional but loveable art teacher Drew Barrymore, as Lucy Whitmore. The balance of romance and comedy found in this movie is certainly something to appreciate.

For the religious Sandler fans, most were expecting him to play the same old immature man who fools around with women and amuses the audience. And they would be partially right. Sandler stars as a womanizing veterinarian whose dream is to study walruses in Alaska. However, his character becomes much more in depth as he lays his eyes upon the endearing, yet troublesome Lucy Whitmore (Barrymore). Due to Lucy's fictitious memory impairment, called Goldfield's Syndrome, she loses her memory every 24 hours and still believes it to be October 13th of the past year, the date of her accident. So what does a man do when he finds himself loving a woman who doesn't remember him the next day?

The co-stars Sandler and Barrymore proved in their first film together, "The Wedding Singer", that they undoubtedly have noteworthy chemistry by winning "Best On-Screen Team" at the MTV Movie Awards in 2004. This movie is no exception to the belief that they make a prestigious pair. Barrymore's shrewd humor but soft heart mixes well with Sandler's crude and persistent personality. The viewer can't help but slowly fall for Henry as he tries to grab Lucy's attention by using imaginative and ridiculous strategies all the way from making fake road blocks, to pretending he can't read. Barrymore does a suitable job transporting herself into character by not over acting, but rather reacting at the right moments; she definitely holds her own in this movie.

Some may say the crude sexual jokes and jests of steroid-enhancing drugs take away from the romantic side, however it only adds to the overall storyline. The humor may not take much intelligence to understand, but that does not weaken the fact that it makes audience chuckle. Seeing a walrus throw up or seeing Rob Schneider get beaten with a bat isn't the highest quality of humor but if it puts a smile on the viewers' face then it's successful in doing its main job. Without the sarcastic moments the serious ones would not be as well as appreciated. No matter how subtle, a respectable movie has a mix of more than just one genre.

This movie is a constant heart breaking battle of remembering and forgetting that repeatedly makes the viewer feel a part of. Nevertheless, this movie is anything but forgettable. Is love at first sight possible? Or rather, is love to this extent possible? However fictional the plot may seem, it succeeds to show that everything seems impossible until proven otherwise.