There is enough charm and plenty of romantic situations in
50 First Dates to make it a winner, despite a fractured script that demands suspension of logic over and over again.
While lead players Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler -- who made a hit pair in the better directed
The Wedding Singer several years ago -- are the film's biggest draw, there is a better performer in the film: Blake Clark. He plays the gruff father of Lucy (Drew Barrymore), who suffers from short-term amnesia. He is both amusing and intimidating, especially when he wonders why young Henry Roth (Sandler) is working so hard to woo his daughter, who is suffering from short-term amnesia following an accident.
Another scene-stealer, Sean Astin, plays Barrymore's younger brother, a short muscleman addicted to steroids.
Despite the attention-grabbing coartistes, Barrymore wins over the audiences easily. There are days in the movie her
character has to be nasty and cranky, and there are days she has to be charming and sensuous.
The films shows her turning into a mature actress. If she worked with better directors and more challenging scripts, she can soon be a Hollywood icon.
One of the several reasons why the new film directed by Peter Segal (Anger Management) ends up as a pleasing
entertainment is the reduction in the number of scatological jokes one associates with a Sandler movie.
Yet,
50 First Dates won't satisfy movie fans who have loved Bill Murray's
Groundhog Day. Or have admired
Memento. Those movies offered much more intrigue and substance while dealing with the memory loss theme.
The story of the new film is also about how a man learns to love a woman even though it seems impossible that she could love him back permanently. This is an arresting theme but it is mostly played for the