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The Main Characters
--Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a ladies’ man living in Hawaii who woos tourists and then drops them after they have sex. All this changes however when he meets…
--Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore) is a woman who lost her ability to transfer her short-term memory into her long-term memory after a horrible car accident thus causing her forget Henry every time they meet.
--Ula (Rob Schneider) is Henry’s good friend. He is a native Hawaiian and is basically there for comic relief.
--Marlin Whitmore (Blake Clark) is Lucy’s protective father who is at first leery about Henry’s intentions with his daughter.
--Doug Whitmore (Sean Astin) is Lucy’s brother. He’s a roided up muscle-bound freak with a seriously bad lisp.
The Setting
Beautiful Hawaii
The Plot
As with all movies of this genre, the plot is very simple. It usually sticks to the formula of: boy meet girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again and usually ends with a hasty marriage in the last two minutes of the film. This isn’t too different except for one part. Here, the boy gets girl but the boy loses the girl every night. And he tries to get her back EVERY MORNING. See, Lucy was a young woman who a year ago got into a horrible accident where she lost the ability to transfer her short-term memories into her long-term memory. So she doesn’t remember anything that happens after the accident. She still lives the day like it’s the day of the accident. She’s been doing this for well over a year. Of course, one day, our unwilling hero, Henry walks into the restaurant that Lucy eats at every morning and is instantly attracted to her. He goes over to talk to her and they hit it off right away. They have a great day together and they plan to meet the next day at the same restaurant. Of course, he goes the next day and she has absolutely no idea who he is. It is there he learns that Lucy was in the accident and she can’t remember him. See, she loses all her memories of that day while she sleeps. Of course, Henry goes on a mission to get Lucy. At first Lucy’s father and brother are weary of Henry’s intentions but they soon see his intentions are genuine. You can see where this all heads. You need some sort of conflict and this movie sees Lucy breaking up with Henry so he can “live his life normally,” or something like that. Since this is a romantic comedy, you know he doesn’t accept that but I won’t give away any ending.
My Review
I went into this movie not expecting too much to be honest. I had seen most of Adam Sandler’s movies and lately they haven’t been all that good, save for Mr. Deeds. This movie actually took me off guard. I thought it was funny right from the get-go. It didn’t stop being funny either. I can honestly say I laughed pretty much through the film. Adam’s and Drew’s chemistry is very good and we as an audience can sense that and it only makes the movie more enjoyable in my opinion. Of course, with movies like these, I feel the funniest things happen when the “sidekick” is there. You know the guy who isn’t in the lead role but is a supporting character. They always seem to be the funniest in movies like these. They always have the best lines. Like Jason Alexander in “Shallow Hal” or Jack Black in “Orange County.” Here two people get that honor, Rob Schneider is hilarious as Ula. Sean Astin, hot off the trail of playing pudgy Samwise Gamgee in the LOTR trilogy shines as the muscle-bound roided up lisping brother of Lucy. Many people have compared this to “Groundhog Day,” due to the theme of repeatedness I guess, but it’s really quite different. Here, Lucy is reliving every day like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, but in this movie, Lucy doesn’t think anything is wrong while everyone else continues with their days, while in GHD, Murray is the only one who realizes they are all stuck in the same day. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I tried. Since this is only meant as a comedy there will be many plot holes due to the question of time, but I’ll let everyone else worry about those. This is a comedy. Laugh, enjoy, overlook any questions like that. Sit back and laugh. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. Among the Adam Sandler canon, it’d rank pretty high. I don’t like it as much as the crude humor of Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore, but I’d say this was better than the Wedding Singer, the other film Drew and Adam were in.
Overall Rating
**1/2
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