50 First Dates (2004)

Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a severely commitment-phobic marine veterinarian in Hawaii who specialises in Walruses and one-night stands (not at the same time). He spends his days romancing tourists and then driving them to the airport without even giving them his phone number.

His wacky, milky-eyed Polynesian sidekick, Ula (Rob Schneider), has a penchant for both sharks and marijuana.

Ula also has five children, who aren’t unlike robots in their giggles and ridicule ot their father.

Henry meets islander Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore) at a diner one morning on his way to work. He is instantly captivated by Lucy’s odd habit of building waffle houses (literally) at breakfast.

They hit it off immediately, and Henry is struck by the realisation that he is “falling for a local” much to his horror and disbelief. They agree to meet again the next day.

Henry subsequently discovers that Lucy was in a car accident a year ago and suffered a severe brain injury which has left her with short-term memory loss, meaning that she remembers nothing and wakes up each morning thinking it’s the day of the accident.

Her father Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug, a steroid junkie with a serious lisp (played by a barely recognisable Sean Astin, best known as Sam in The Lord of the Rings trilogy), take extreme pains – meticulously resetting the house every night (re-reading the same newspaper, re-watching the same football game) – to protect Lucy from the emotional trauma of discovering her condition and provide her with a loving home atmosphere despite her eccentricities.

It takes some interference from Henry for Lucy to realise that this sheltered existence isn’t good for her.

To say the plot is inconsistent would be a considerable understatement. The change in Henry from an obnoxious player to a thoughtful and dedicated boyfriend trying day after day to get Lucy to fall in love with him again (using increasingly creative, funny, and elaborate methods) is too sudden and implausible to work.

The film assumes the audience won’t notice the gaping plot holes because we’re too busy laughing.

Astin is great as Doug, and there are some truly funny scenes – especially the scene where Lucy beats Ula with a baseball bat, thinking that he is attacking Henry.

The subpar humour filling the rest of the film doesn’t make up for the logical discrepancies, though.

The last 15 minutes of the film – featuring the sublime version of Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole – are genuinely sweet and almost make up for the rest.

Sandler and Barrymore have a lot of chemistry onscreen, and they make a cute couple, with Henry loving Lucy despite her condition, and Lucy trusting him to help her. They are well matched, and the film takes full advantage of this.

Produced on a budget of roughly $75 million, the film was a massive commercial hit, grossing over $198.5 million worldwide. The film features an island-infused soundtrack made up almost entirely of 1980s new wave and pop covers performed in a reggae or Hawaiian style.

Henry Roth
Adam Sandler
Lucy Whitmore
Drew Barrymore
Ula
Rob Schneider
Doug Whitmore
Sean Astin
Alexa
Lusia Strus
Dr Keats
Dan Aykroyd
Sue
Amy Hill
Ten Second Tom
Allen Covert
Marlin Whitmore
Blake Clark
Stacy
Maya Rudolph
Stacy’s Husband
David Suapaia
Nick
Pomaika’i Brown
Jennifer
Jonathan Loughran
Pablo
J.D. Donaruma
Linda
Lynn Collins
Caddy
Peter Chen
Ula’s Wife
Denise Bee
Ula’s Kids
Christian Kai
James Lee
Kylie Moore
Keali’i Olmos
Tache Uesugi
Henry & Lucy’s Daughter
Marguerite Cazin
Sheriff
Esmond Chung
Dentist
Jackie Sandler (as Jackie Titone)

Director
Peter Segal

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