BEFORE: The Aniston chain is over, so Adam Sandler carries over from "Just Go With It". Once again the state of Hawaii is the scene (yes, my secret sponsor is the Hawaii tourism board...) and 80's music is on the soundtrack, in remixed form. I know this in advance because I've had this film's soundtrack in my iTunes for quite a while, even though I'd never seen the film that goes with it.
THE PLOT: Henry Roth is a man afraid of commitment up until he meets the beautiful Lucy. They hit it off and Henry think he's finally found the girl of his dreams, until he discovers she has short-term memory loss and forgets him the very next day.
AFTER: And, once again Adam Sandler plays a man afraid of commitment. (Who hurt you, Adam?) I'm pretty sure he's happily married in real-life, so I'll just chalk this up to screenwriters who tend to work in broad strokes and easily definable characters.
When he's finally ready for a long-term relationship, he falls rather ironically for a woman whose memory resets every morning. At first this seems ideal, because he can have a one-night stand with her and she won't remember it, but he's no longer looking for that, and apparently he's intrigued by the challenge. So he sets out to win her heart, day after day, without stopping to consider how pointless this exercise seems.
Her condition here is called Goldfield Syndrome, but is a variation on anterograde amnesia, a.k.a. "movie amnesia". True amnesia can last days or weeks, but usually sleep is a helpful part of the process, not a catalyst for a daily "reset". What happens if she doesn't go to sleep at her regular time, or stays up all night? If she takes a nap, does she forget only some things, like phone numbers?
Her father and brother have taken great pains to re-create the last day that she remembers, so in effect she is living this day over and over. At first this calls to mind "Groundhog Day", when Bill Murray's character was stuck on the same day, and had infinite chances to win a woman's heart, so he was (eventually) able to plan the perfect date. But then the situation here starts to resemble "Memento", as Henry starts to break down the pattern and try to get Lucy to remember him. And it turns out that video-messages and scrapbooks are a lot cheaper than full-body tattoos.
ASIDE: Can I express how much I love the film "Memento"? (Note to self: watch "Memento" again during the next break.) But every synopsis, every examination of the film is incomplete. Because the main character has no short-term memory, and because he has to leave himself messages scrawled on photos and his own body, he is an unreliable source of information. There is a very real possibility that he could write down something to investigate further, and then the next day he would take that bit of evidence as a fact, rather than a theory.
And because the film scenes are edited (mostly) in reverse order, we, the audience members, are put in the same position as the hero - we don't know what came before, because it hasn't appeared on screen yet. So every conclusion made at the end (which is really the beginning, if you think about it) is open to interpretation. And a key flashback scene isn't necessarily any more true than any other scene, because it could be a faulty memory in the guy's head. So every single synopsis or analysis needs to end with "of course, other interpretations are possible", or "your mileage may vary". And if you think you've got it figured out, watch it again. Pure brilliance. End of ASIDE.
Back to "50 First Dates" - eventually Lucy comes to terms with the relationship, and feels like her condition is holding Henry back from following his dream. This is what I call the "lead weight/helium balloon" theory of relationships, where one person feels that they (or their lover) needs to be free to explore a new career, or a new life, or more partners, and their partner is holding them back. I can't say I recall seeing this examined in too many movies, but I'm going to be looking for it now. If someone asks me why my first marriage ended, I should just refer them to the weight and the balloon (yes, I was told I was the lead weight).
So the question then becomes - does one character love another enough to let them go, and how is that not itself a conundrum? If you love them and want to be with them, but something is making it impossible, then it's not. You have to care about them so much that you put their needs, including their need to be apart from you, ahead of your own.
I think you can also take this film as a symbolic representation of anyone whose spouses suffers from Alzheimer's, or is in a coma, or suffers from real amnesia after an accident. You'd see a similar situation, where one person is aware of the relationship and the other isn't, and they have to find a way to continue the relationship, or decide not to. Apparently there's another film on a similar topic, "The Vow", but I don't have that film on my list.
It's tempting to just regard this film as junk science and frivolous fluff, but it ended rather strongly and sweetly, like a romantic comedy should.
Also starring Drew Barrymore (last seen in "He's Just Not That Into You"), Rob Schneider (last seen in "The Longest Yard"), Sean Astin (last seen in "Memphis Belle"), Amy Hill, Blake Clark, with cameos from Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Yogi Bear"), Maya Rudolph (last seen in "Bridesmaids"), Missy Pyle (last seen in "Along Came Polly"), Kevin James (last seen in "Grown Ups").
RATING: 5 out of 10 cans of spam (again, it's a 4 boosted up one by the soundtrack)
Let's not forget about Rob Schneider in blackface. Whose idea was that, for God's sake? It'd have been bad enough to have a movie set in Hawaii whose sole native Hawaiian character is a shiftless, lazy buffoon...but to have that character played by a white guy in dark makeup who was so committed to the role that he spent almost the entire flight from LA to Honolulu mastering the accent?
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