50 First Dates

50 FIRST DATES

REVIEWED BY SHANNON H.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual references/innuendo, vulgar content

Rated:

For some reason, movies involving characters with short-term memory loss seem to be "in." Films like Memento, Finding Nemo, and others celebrate the handicap of not being able to remember what happened the day before. 50 First Dates is no exception.

Marine biologist and veterinarian Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) has a thing for the female tourists that visit his marine wildlife sanctuary. He also cuts them off once they go back home. Henry has two animal friends: a walrus and a penguin dressed in a Hawaiian print shirt. After getting over his last fling with a tourist, Henry stops off at a restaurant for breakfast and meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), an art teacher. They meet at breakfast and manage to hit it off. Henry goes back to the same place the next day for breakfast and finds that Lucy has short-term memory loss due to a freak accident a year ago. She can only remember everything up to the day of the accident. Henry is head-over-heels for Lucy and tries everything to win her back, even if he had to refresh her memory every morning. With the help of Lucy's father, Marlin (Blake Clark), her brother, Doug (Sean Astin), and an old buddy, Ula (Rob Schneider), he tries every day to win over the woman he loves, despite her handicap.

Before you read into this, thinking it's a sweet love story (well, it is...kinda), it's also a comedy and this particular one is rated PG-13 (as most comedies are these days), meaning that it contains stuff like sexual content, toilet humor and inappropriate language. There is a reference to an androgynous character, Alexa, who works alongside Henry. He/she is seen dating and kissing a woman on a date. It is implied that Henry and Lucy have slept with each other. And there's plenty of cussing too, especially from a cantankerous old man (Joe Nakashima) who makes sarcastic remarks every so often during the film. A short-order cook in the restaurant (Pomaika'i Brown) gives Henry "the bird." Henry's friend, Ula wears extremely short, spandex shorts that reveal part of his buttocks and has disgusting habits and uses foul language. A man at a memory loss clinic nicknamed "Ten Second Tom" (Allen Covert) uses profanity to call people names. Some may think that this film's portrayal of those with memory loss is offensive although it's played for laughs. The violence in the film is pretty much slapstick; nothing traumatic. There are some characters who take the Lord's name in vain and the only spiritual aspect to the film is a Jewish wedding ceremony.

The Lord says that we are to reserve sex for marriage. In comedies like this, couples are often portrayed in bed together before they marry. This is the kind of thing God frowns upon. Same goes for using curse words. However, in the film, Henry talks to Ula about dating Lucy. Ula believes it's a great idea because Henry could have his way with her and not have to worry about anything the next day since Lucy won't remember it, however, Henry objects to this, saying that he really likes her and wouldn't even think of taking advantage of her. In a way, the film does slightly put those with extreme memory loss in a positive light.

I am glad I only rented this film because it's just plain stupid. If I saw this in the theater, I would have walked out and demanded my money back. Saturday Night Live alumni Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider could not save this film. Someone recommended that I rent it because it was "funny." Well, I wasn't laughing. It wasn't because of the jokes made towards those with memory loss, but just the fact that the film did not strike me as being hilarious or entertaining. The only entertaining thing about it was the outtake reel on the DVD features. Plus, I did not like the idea of Henry and Lucy sleeping together prior to marriage. My advice is to save your $3.50 and rent something worthwhile like Lord of the Rings.