50 First Dates (**)
review by Jon Waterman

Henry is a player. Living in Hawaii, he uses vacationing women to live out his fantasies and have multiple flings with myriad girls. Soon, he meets his dream girl in Lucy. The problem is she’s a local. The good news is, it turns out she can’t form new memories. Henry may be falling for Lucy, but in order to see if anything can come from their relationship, he needs to start the relationship all over every day.

This film has all the elements of an Adam Sandler (Henry) movie. It has the wacky premise, the love interest and oddball characters. But, it’s not written by Sandler…or Tim Herlihy. Instead it’s penned by this new guy named George Wing. It’s sort of surprising that neither Sandler nor Rob Schneider (who plays Ula) had a major hand in the final product. The script is very well thought out in terms of the reality of what the situation would be like. They show the intense process Lucy’s brother and father go through to reset the day for her so she doesn’t awaken upset or startled. It thinks out what needs to happen every day in her private world and shows what happens when it collapses.

Despite the thought, a lot of the jokes end up collapsing. The gags are telegraphed or set up to be this hilarious thing, but just falls flat on it’s face. I don’t know how they thought some of that would be funny. This androgynous coworker of Henry’s gets sprayed with various things at various times. Also, s/he’s a sex freak (of course a character of mistaken sexual identity would be) and thus disgustingly talks about sex all the time.

The movie tries to squeeze some life out of the quirky characters. Ula is a native who has super-talented kids. There’s the old man in the diner that makes the witty remarks. The chef, the aforementioned coworker, the steroid abusing brother of Lucy, and all the animals at the aquatic park Henry works at. The walrus and the penguin are, undeniably, adorable. Obviously, they are there just to get “awwwws” from the audience. But it works. They’re cute.

And that’s the best way to describe the film as a whole. It’s cute. As a romantic comedy, there could be more Hawaiian Punch to the lines. I’d say it’s romantic enough, though. Overall, it’s an alright date movie. I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. If you get bored with the tightly constructed story, which most likely won’t happen, then sit back and enjoy the scenery of the islands. Aloha.

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