50 First Dates: Sandler's flirtation with maturity

In the grand tradition of all Adam Sandler films, 50 First Dates is shocking. But not for the usual reasons, a real surprise considering Sandler has followed the usual formula: He plays the lead. He surrounds himself with a host of obnoxious characters. The script is littered with lewd jokes and profanity. Rob Schneider is in this film, for pete's sake- better ingredients for the Sandler's standard gross-out comedy couldn't have been gathered if bits from his previous films hadn't been simply edited together. But what's shocking is that despite its casting and joke material, 50 First Dates borders on the edge of mature.

Sandler's never been one to skirt bizarre subject material or avoid an uncomfortable joke, and the plot for 50 First Dates provides him with ample opportunity to show off both aspects of his comic character. Yet, he manages for the most part to navigate the looming tempest of condescension and unfeeling insult that seems destined to overcome a comedy about brain damage and make a relatively sweet film.

Unfortunately, Sandler may have outsmarted himself with his mostly appropriate approach to his gimmick. Brain damage is, after all, inherently unfunny, and a melancholy feeling pervades the film that makes the viewer feel guilty even during some of the movie's best moments. The characters are a little too pathetic for the simple-minded, laugh-happy script, belonging in a world somewhere between Happy Gilmore and Punch-Drunk Love rather than in the light-hearted, Hawaiian tropics of 50 First Dates.

It is here in Hawaii that Henry Roth (Sandler) resides, a vet at the local aquarium and career bachelor who only dates mainland tourists, promising them a good time and in return receiving sex commitment-free. Roth is jarred from his pattern when he falls for Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), a beautiful local who comes with a catch: She suffered massive brain trauma in a car accident a year before and has no short-term memory, so cannot remember Roth from one day to the next, causing him untold amounts of anguish.

Lucy's weary father Marlin (Blake Clark) and wannabe body-builder brother Doug (Sean Astin) keep up the charade that everyday is October 13, her father's birthday and the day of Lucy's accident. The reenactment of the birthday night, like most of the movie, is uncomfortably funny—watching Marlin and Doug pretend to be shocked at the ending of The Sixth Sense (which they watch every night) is amusing, but it's difficult to laugh at their hopeless lives. Astin's character also walks a thin line between hilarious and deeply annoying, often overstepping. A steroid-popping, weight-lifting overprotective older brother is enough of a comic stepping-stone without the addition of a grating lisp that punctuates all of Astin's dialogue. Clark is more watchable with his endearing combination of dry wit and fatherly love.

Roth, however, is undeterred by Lucy's problem, and having fallen in love, is content to contrive ways of meeting her anew everyday. Sandler and Barrymore's chemistry is apt to the test of multiple "first dates," and both their characters are engaging, smartly presented, and sympathetic. As Roth's attempts to meet Lucy grow increasingly ridiculous they also grow in comedic value, from pretending his car needs a jump to kidnapping himself and waiting, tied up by the roadside, for her to free him.

Instead of being offensive towards the mentally damaged, 50 First Dates laughs with those victims instead of at them. Roth eventually convinces the Whitmores to let Lucy face her disorder, making her a videotape that she watches every morning which uses a combination of silliness and tenderness to inform her of her situation, both with him and the world around her. The video tape, which features Sandler's best friend Ula (Rob Schneider) in a mop-wig and cocoanut-bra playing Lucy in a reenactment, finds the humor in Lucy and Roth's situation without being patronizing to her—Roth seems to genuinely understand what Lucy is going through and does his best every day to help her face a radically changed world from the one she remembers.

Though Lucy supposedly starts each day before watching the fateful video not knowing about her disorder or remembering Roth, once she watches the video he seems able to progress through their relationship at a suspiciously rapid rate. That Lucy can reconcile with the fact that she suffered irreparable memory loss one year earlier, is dating a man with an egg-shaped head that (as far as she's concerned) she's never met, and then progress to a sexual relationship with him in less than 24-hours is wholly unbelievable. Roth's circular dating rituals tend once again so closely to the pitiable that even though the jokes are humorous, we are averse to laughing at the situation.

But 50 First Dates is surprisingly tasteful, and if you manage to overcome your squeamishness at giggling at Lucy's pathetic state, it can be enjoyably light-hearted. Though like its protagonists memory, the film's plot goes nowhere, it meanders through some interesting and funny territory along the way.

50 First Dates is rated PG-13 for crude sexual humor and drug references.