Romancefest 2016: 50 First Dates

Last time we left Romancefest I was like, "I dunno if I want to do this anymore."
wanna do this anymore."

But guess what? It's February, time to watch 29 romantic movies in 29 days, and write about them. It's tradition. So welcome to Romancefest 2016.

This year I'm going to be sticking with romantic comedies. That way I can keep the run time of each movie down. It'll also be easier on the old emotions because if there is anything I've learned from previous Romancefests it's that people die a lot in romantic movies that aren't comedies. For the most part they'll be movies I've never seen before but every now and then I'm either not sure if I've seen a movie or I know I've seen it and totally can't remember it, so some of those will sneak in here, too.

Let's start with 2004's 50 FIRST DATES, the second romantic comedy pairing of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I'd either never seen this one or forgot all about it. I'm not sure which. That's how old I am now. I used to not get it when my parents couldn't remember which movies they'd seen. Now I get it.

Anyway, the premise of 50 FIRST DATES is pretty clever: Drew Barrymore stars as a young woman who has a mental disorder as the result of a car accident and wakes up each morning thinking it's the same day. In other words, her short term memory is shot and erases as she sleeps every night.

Adam Sandler stars as a womanizing commitment-phobe, so you'd think this would be a match made in heaven: a dude who can't commit and a chick who can't remember. Except of course that Sandler falls in love with Barrymore and that complicates things.

At first the movie didn't have me. I didn't get why Barrymore's family had to go to such lengths to keep up the illusion that she was living the same day over and over again, instead of simply letting her know about her predicament. But once all that stuff (and the stuff with walruses puking on people) was over, Barrymore's charm took over and the sweetness of the movie got me.

It helps that the movie is set in Hawaii, with great cinematography capturing beautiful scenery, all set to bouncy reggae tunes. It's hard not to be happy watching a flick like this. Aside from Sandler and Barrymore's easy chemistry, we also have a supporting cast of colorful characters including Rob Schneider as Sandler's bestie and Sean Astin as Barrymore's lisping meathead brother.