Uncovering the secret of the Adam ‘Sandlerverse’
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Adam Sandler movie ’50 First Dates’ inspired a real therapy program
Despite his detractors, Adam Sandler has starred in a series of powerful movies throughout his career. From Punch-Drunk Love to Uncut Gems, the actor has been in a handful of treasured pictures, although he is often dismissed as a slightly over-the-hill comedian whose brand of comedy has no place in the contemporary world. This is understandable, given titles such as The Cobbler and Don’t Mess with the Zohan remain objectively terrible creations, but Sandler shouldn’t be disregarded, as even some of the finest actors of all time have made many errors in judgement.
His dreadful flicks aside, there is one Adam Sandler film that has always been a cherished one: the 2004 effort 50 First Dates. Pushing the boundaries of his creativity, the movie tackled some of the most pertinent themes that a Sandler title had explored up until that point.
Of course, the movie is not without its downsides, such as Rob Schneider playing yet another racially controversial character as Ula, the native Hawaiian, as well as a sequence of purely dumb scenes, but as a whole, 50 First Dates is one of Sandler’s best.
Boasting a cast such as Drew Barrymore, Sean Astin, and Dan Aykroyd, there’s no real surprise that 50 First Dates is widely hailed as one of Sandler’s finest. It follows Henry (Sandler), a womaniser and marine veterinarian who falls for an art teacher, Lucy (Barrymore). He soon discovers that she has amnesia, and when Lucy forgets him every day, he hatches a plan to win her over again daily. Whilst it might sound saccharine, it has its place.
Notably, the film was shot on location in Hawaii, giving the project a more authentic feel in comparison to other Sandler titles such as The Longest Yard or Little Nicky. Furthermore, Sandler and Barrymore’s on-screen chemistry, which was first established with 1998’s The Wedding Singer, also carries the movie, with both actors winning an MTV award for ‘Best On-Screen Team’.
However, the most significant part of the film is how it explores memory-related illnesses, with Lucy suffering from the fictional ‘Goldfield’s Syndrome’, which bears many similarities to short-term memory loss and anterograde amnesia. The significance is that 50 First Dates brought the discussion of such conditions into the mainstream, changing the idea that such a circumstance was mainly associated with older people.
50 First Dates made such an impact that the way in which Henry greets Lucy every day with a new ‘first date’ and video, a decision which improves her memory by the end of the film, actually influenced a real therapy programme. The Hebrew Home in Riverdale, Bronx, started an experiment in which residents with the early onset of dementia watch a video every morning in which they see comforting messages and reminders from the family members that they still remember.
Speaking to NBC in 2015, Charlotte Dell, the director of social services for the home, explained that they were directly inspired by 50 First Dates. She said: “It was fluff, but it made me think, ‘How could that translate to our residents with memory loss?'”
