By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in a scene from the movie '50 First Dates'. - Contributed
THE MOVIE 50 First Dates, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, is an almost adequate reflection of the two people who star it. Barrymore, since her time with the famed extraterrestrial, has perfected the art of cute with a healthy dose of quirky. Sandler, on the other hand has perfected crude obnoxiousness and wears it very well. Like a foot fungus he is a bit repulsive at first, but by now he has got under the skin and it is very hard to get him out.
50 First Dates attempts to work on this dynamic, to match Barrymore's beauty to Sandler's beast. Though this time around he is not an angry man, the movie brings much of the Sandler element. It has lots of stupid, mindless violence, mixed with crude sexual and bodily humour. The cute and charming part is far less. As a result, 50 First Dates is less than the sum of its stars. The movie comes nowhere close to The Wedding Singer, which more successfully captured Sandler and Barrymore's talents. With the exception of the successful replacement of the rapping granny with an insult slinging, grouchy old man (played by Joe Nakashima), 50 First Dates is hardly as well crafted as Barrymore and Sandler's first encounter. The more entertaining Sandler films tend to be stupid but charming; 50 First Dates first starts to get charming half-way through the movie. The task therefore, is to make it that far.
ROMANTIC ELEMENT
Fifty First Dates presents an extension of the boy meets girl romantic element of the plot, where boy meets girl again and again and again. Lucy (Barrymore) has lost her short-term memory and so, in his attempt to win her, Harry (Sandler) has to keep reminding her of who he is. That said, there is no need to point out that the movie has a ridiculous plot. As such, enjoyment of this movie depends on leaving all expectations of sophistication behind.
LEFTOVER BITS
The first half of the film is largely an attempt to string together what could easily be leftover bits from other Sandler movies. It is a slew of violence and crude humour all targeting the lowest denominator and, fortunately, some of it works.
Half-way through, the more Barrymore-like part of the movie kicks in and it gets more tolerable, as Barrymore gets a few very good scenes. As Barrymore's character is allowed to develop (as much as someone who cannot remember what they did yesterday can) the movie gets better. Interestingly, for someone with no short-term memory, Lucy has wonderful up-to-date fashion sense. If her clothes do not make up for plot, the very good reggae soundtrack certainly helps.
The supplemental characters also help to make the movie more fun. A cameo by Dan Akroyd is rather fun and Allen Covert's stint as 'Ten Second Tom' is sublimely ridiculous. It's also good to see Sean Austin, who has stashed his hobbit feet and gives a reasonable performance as Lucy's lisping brother.
As a romantic comedy, 50 First Dates has trouble climbing up to the grade for either romance or comedy, but it gets there. There are a few funny moments and the ending is sweet, which goes a far way toward making up for the first half of the movie.
