message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

                
50 First Dates   Rated PG 13
Directed by Peter Segal.  Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore.

Photo © Copyright Columbia Pictures
Henry Roth (Sandler) is a smooth-talking Sea World veterinarian living in Hawaii who uses deception and charm for one-night stands with vacationing women.  One morning, after his boat breaks down, he goes into a local restaurant for a cup of coffee and falls for Lucy (Barrymore), a beautiful and free-spirited resident.  Just as Henry is wondering what to do with a woman who isn’t leaving the island for a while, he discovers that Lucy suffers from short-term memory loss as a result of an automobile accident a year ago.  She wakes up every morning as if it were the day of the accident, and her father and brother play into the delusion, serving up birthday cake and covering up the tragedy.  As Henry’s love for Lucy grows, he must persuade her family to confront her with her past, while also striving to find ways to win Lucy’s love in new ways every day.  That’s a pretty serious storyline, and you’ve got to give Adam Sandler a lot of credit for combining such dark and challenging material with the usual hodgepodge of gross-out gags, politically incorrect stereotypes, funny animal reaction shots, and kooky sidekicks that are expected from his stalwart fans.  Like 1997’s The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates blends a sweet romance for the ladies with crude and tacky gags for the guys to make it a perfect date movie.  But no matter how often Sandler and crew try to distance themselves from the seriousness of the theme, the film eventually becomes a touching meditation of the sacrifices that people make for those that they love.  I have known spouses of persons suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and adult children caring for ageing parents who have learned to show such love.  And, if memory serves me right, I think I recall God giving up quite a bit to get in touch with us, too.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating: Three halos. . (You’ll groan at a lot of the tacky jokes, but you’ll remember the poignant love story.)   Two pitchforks.  (Some suggestive dialogue, crude finger gestures, swearing, sexual stereotypes, drug jokes and animal vomiting – it’s still an Adam Sandler comedy, after all.)

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