To keep with the theme of the class, memory, I chose 50 First Dates, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, to do my second blog entry on. This is a light-hearted romance movie with Adam Sandler humor. This movie shows the life after short-term memory loss. The story takes place in Hawaii, where the two fall in love and meet again everyday, because Lucy's, Barrymore's character, memory gets erased in her sleep everynight. Her family decides to hide this horrible truth from her and let her think that everyday is the same day, Sunday, October 13. When Henry Roth, Sandler's character, comes along and challenges her family to tell Lucy everyday about what happened to her. So, she can live her life with some meaning for the rest of the day. I thought this movie was a cute story about two people falling in love through many obstacles. However, after seeing Memento and remembering what I learned in Cognitive Psychology, the representation of the short-term memory loss was not accurate in 50 First Dates. In Memento, the main character could only remember something if it occupied his mind, but if his attention was brought to something else he would forget the prior thing. This is a much more accurate illustration of short-term memory loss.
However, Drew Barrymore's performance was outstanding. She always makes acting look so easy. To play a girl who loses her memory in a romantic comedy has to take talent and skill. She definitely pulls it off. This is her second movie with Adam Sandler. The first was the Wedding Singer, which was just a good. However, in most of Adam Sandler's romantic comedies he plays kinda of the same character. His character is usually a guy who has some weird extreme characteristic, which in this movie was his addiction to one-night stands, but he is still an overall nice guy. In one way that is good because you always know what to expect for him in his films, but people may also get bored of the same kind of character in his movies.
Additionally, the beautiful mise-en-scene of the film, set in Hawaii, adds to the light-hearted film. Palm trees, bright green grass, and the crystal blue water complimented Barrymore's character. Her being a smart, funny, and caring woman went well with the bright and sunny scenery of the island. The mise-en-scene also went along with Sandler's carefree character who before meeting Lucy jumped from one woman to the next, like the wind blowing the leaves of the palm branches.
Overall, the movie is definitely a date or couple movie filled with fun and heart warming laughter.