This is one of my favorite movies, though I wouldn’t call it great (see Favorite vs. Great article). Yeah, I’m a sucker for romantic comedies but what really gets me about 50 First Dates is the concept of being stuck in time. Summarizing the plot won’t ruin the movie, but if you are worried, stop reading this article…Ok, you were warned!
Henry falls in love with Lucy, a woman who has a short term memory problem. Her mind is forever frozen on the day of her car accident and head trauma. Every night, her short term memories resets to the morning of that day. At first, her family and friends try to keep her oblivious to what happened, but it’s really draining on them, and it doesn’t always work. On bad days, her family takes her to the doctor, and he explains what happened. The whole day is wasted.
Love inspires Henry to come up with a better plan. He creates a video for Lucy to quickly update her on what has happened since the accident. She still gets upset, but she is able to get over it quicker and to enjoy the rest of the day. Henry and Lucy can go on dates, and her family and friends don’t have to pretend anymore – a rather ingenious solution. Other stuff happens later, but I’ll let you watch and enjoy the movie.
I am intrigued by what Lucy must feel everyday. It must be confusing, sad, scary, and exciting all at once. Although the video method is efficient, Lucy mentions how it makes her feel like her life is being told to her. Some part of her is still in shock and disbelief. She starts keeping a journal every night, and reading her own thoughts in her own words makes it real.
This is not like waking up from a coma – there you know that you missed out on life. Lucy is actually living life one day at a time – she just doesn’t remember it. It takes a special person to be able to thrive under such condition.
Philoscifi 
I just watched the movie for probably the fiftieth time today and I agree with everything you have just said, except for one thing. WHY dont’ you like adam sandler?! im just wondering because I think he is awesome but that’s just my opinon.
I think this is the sweetest movie/plot I have ever seen. With the way the world is today, people using eachother just as Henry did in the movie, it is hard to believe that there is that old fashioned love still alive in today’s society.
Besides the adam sandler comment, great blog :)
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I’ll reword that part. It wasn’t suppose to be a knock on Sandler; it’s a reference to another article I wrote, Favorite vs. Great. In that article, I mention the distinction between favorite (movies I like) and great (movies that are “well made” or “Oscar worthy”). Actually, I like Adam Sandler. Anger Management is my 2nd favorite Sandler flick so far. But Adam Sandler does comedy, which unfortunately isn’t as critically regarded as drama.
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Oh I understand now! I just read your article :) . What did you mean the movie was kind of shallow? That is an interesting way to look at it, and I guess I could see what you mean. I think I like the majority of his movies with the exception of Little Nicky. I agree, Anger Management is hilarious. I don’t think it matters if it is drama or not, I personally think that commedies should be award winning haha.
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“Shallow” is usually associated with “lighthearted, doesn’t necessary require a lot of thinking,” as opposed to “deep” which is usually associated with “heavy, thought provoking, disturbing, etc.” The terms are relative and technically neither good nor bad, although some people use “shallow” as a derogatory term. The best is to get a balance between them. You can’t always watch heavy stuff. It’s too much.
Occasionally comedies do win awards (I think As Good As It Gets won a few Oscars). I like seeing that because comedy is actually hard to do well, and it can be thought provoking too. It shouldn’t get automatically discounted because the genre is stereotypically “shallower.”
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I agree commedies are very difficult to get right. Have you seen Epic movie? I saw it at the dollar movies and it wasn’t even worth a dollar! haha. There are a lot of commedies that aren’t that great or are very innappropriate but the few times they do get a commedy right, it’s perfect. Like fifty first dates for example. Even though it is a romantic comedy, it is very funny and I personally think is great for all genders and people. I like Drew Barrymore from Never Been Kissed and Adam Sandler from a lot of other movies, so I think they were great together in this movie. I don’t think any other movie can top this one.
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