50 First Dates
You may adore Adam Sandler or you may think he's Jerry Lewis's idiot kid brother, but you have to admit he's a canny man. The comedian knows enough to diversify, alternating projects that appeal to his core audience of smartass young guys ("Anger Management," "Eight Crazy Nights"), date-night couples ("Big Daddy," "The Wedding Singer"), and even art-house snobs (the underrated "Punch-Drunk Love").
"50 First Dates" is one for the couples, especially since it reunites Sandler with his "Wedding Singer" costar, Drew Barrymore. Maybe it's going a little too far to call them the Tracy and Hepburn of their generation, but the two cast a disarmingly gentle glow. Neither Sandler nor Barrymore is a conventional Hollywood god: Instead, they shuffle happily around each other, joshing as if the cameras weren't rolling, and you find yourself enchanted. They play well together -- he gets her to focus, and she softens his frat-boy smugness.
Then Rob Schneider shows up as a grotesque Hawaiian stoner or the walrus pukes all over the set and we're back in Sandler Land. "50 First Dates" wants to have it both ways, but only one of them really works.
The plot -- it's inspired and ridiculous at the same time -- is best described as "Groundhog Day" meets "Memento." Sandler plays Henry Roth, a Hawaii-based veterinarian at a Sea World-style aquarium. (This gives director Peter Segal license to indulge in crowd-pleasing anthropomorphic high jinks such as penguins in Hawaiian shirts and a high-fiving walrus, a little of which goes a terribly long way.) Barrymore is Lucy Whitmore, a sweetie pie with a penchant for treating her waffles like Lincoln Logs when Henry meets her in a local diner. They meet cute and get along cuter. The next day she has no idea who he is.
This is because Lucy has no short-term memory, the result of a car accident that banged up her and her fisherman father, Marlin (Blake Clark), several months previously. The result is that it's eternally October of last year for the poor girl, a fact of which Marlin and Lucy's steroid-addled brother, Doug (Sean Astin), work strenuously to keep her convinced.
Henry sees an easier way. After starting his courtship of Lucy each day from scratch -- the variations are sweet, extremely funny, stupid, and occasionally all three -- he creates an explanatory video with which she can start her morning, get over the necessary trauma, and move on with her life. None of this is particularly believable, but one doesn't come to an Adam Sandler movie for clinical realism, especially when Dan Aykroyd's playing Lucy's doctor.
Nevertheless, there's a real charm to the notion that a couple might share a first kiss every day -- we should all be so lucky -- and the stars warm to it. "50 First Dates" offers the post-"Punch-Drunk" Sandler: appealingly lumpy, confident instead of cocky, and if not exactly mature, at least aware maturity has its benefits.
Outside of the protective bubble surrounding the two, though, it's business as usual. Since Sandler is in romantic mode, Schneider is tapped to provide the gross-out comedy. His performance as Henry's best friend, Ula, a "wacky" island burnout and fifth-rate Cheech, will give giggles to the young and young of mind, but it's still an appalling bit of Hawaiian blackface, hardly mitigated by the fact that Schneider is himself half-Filipino. Note to Schneider: I wouldn't travel to the islands any time soon, unless you want to get sent running back to Haole-wood.
Much funnier is Astin, in his first notable post-Sam Gamgee role, as Lucy's lisping, muscle-bound brother -- a shrimp in an ill-fitting new beefcake body. Doug is a fully realized, deeply silly character, and the difference between Ula and him is the difference between a comedian and a comic actor. What's most subtly pleasing about "50 First Dates" is watching Sandler himself step gingerly onto the high wire connecting the two.
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