Like, it's presented as this wholesome thing where Adam Sandler finds a creative solution to make his relationship with Drew Barrymore work, but if you think about this from her perspective it quickly becomes a hellish nightmare.
Realistically, she isn't truly able to consent to sex. Yet she wakes up every morning in a strangers house with a VHS tape playing where this random guy she does not recall ever meeting explains her situation. He claims to be her husband and the father of her children who she has no memory of ever having. If I were her, I'd very quickly assume I was drugged and kidnapped by some nutcase, then I'd try to flee the house in any way possible.
I think this is his first Paid Vacation movie criteria wise. His other movies are bad but this was in the late peak of his fame, happens in Hawaii and his snl regular pals have had a few years since they could bank a solo mid budget comedy.
His best movie in decades is Uncut Gems, and the fact that it exists makes his other movies inexcusable because now we know he actually can act.
Adam Sandler makes bad movies because bad movies make Adam Sandler Adam Sandler.
His character in Punch-Drunk Love is literally the same as the Little Nicky, Happy Gilmore, etc. movies.
Yeah, I think Uncut Gems was the first time I saw him playing an actual character instead of one of his 3 personas.
Sandler nepto company Happy Madison supports like 20-30 friends of Sandler's. So that is sorta cool, most nepto is family nepto.
Wild that she had kids. Imagine waking up one morning and your not only married to adam sandler, you're 6 months pregnant with his child. :porky-scared:
It's several times more nightmarish than The Yellow Wallpaper, but - again - Adam Sandler finds that shit romantic, and so do millions of other men. Horrifying.
and so do millions of other men.
Not that you're wrong, but I think the main audience for romcoms are women.
finds that shit romantic, and so do millions of other men
It's my 40-something cishet sister's favorite movie because it's "so romantic." :kombucha-disgust:
Wow it would be bad if there was a whole generation of men who learned how to hit on women from these movies, amirite?
I can only hit on women if I imagine that they'll forget that I did by the next day, yes.
I think there's less time between the release of 50 first dates and the cracked.com article that i first saw this take than between that cracked article and now.
Yeah several film critics have pointed out how fucked up it is
Outside of reversing her brain damage, there's not really any happy ending possible for that character unfortunately.
Yeh even when I first watched it when I was like 15 I thought it was sus as hell like bitch wakes up in the fucking Arctic on a boat or some shit?!
Yeah, it crosses what I like to call the "Light in the Piazza" (Movie or Musical) line between allowing people with mental disability the chance for agency and even love, and forcing people to can't consent into a hell world that is at best a slightly better hell world than the one they are in.
If the disability had been handled with a bit more nuance it might work. A lot of people with this disability can learn skills, recognise and feel emotion about people they met after the trauma that caused the condition, and have kind of "vibes" based memory. But the show doesn't make it clear that the lead is recalling her relationship with Sandler even if she can't remember properly.
Also it's a plot for a tangled exploration of ethics and the human condition with maybe an ambiguously happy ending (see again "Light in the Piazza"), not a super fun romantic comedy.
Yeah I've seen videos of people who can't form new memories, but know that their loved ones are their loved ones and even if they can't quite remember if you're their mom, sister, or wife, they at least know that you're family and a safe person.
I'm guessing this movie doesn't do that.
There's a bit at the very end where she "dreams" about him and remembers a song, but you need to show it a lot more.
I know I'm using the comparison too much, but (Spoilers) in Light in the Piazza (the Musical, the movie is from the 50s and so a bit problematic),
spoiler
The main character has been developmentally frozen since age 12 from a head injury but in her mid 20s falls in love with a younger Italian man that doesn't recognise her outbursts and immaturity as a disability, but as a combination of language gap and cultural differences. It helps that his family is portrayed as...stereotypical loud arguing Italians in constant immature outbursts, at least at first. So she fits right in.
Her mother, who believes that she cannot consent to such a relationship, spends most of the show trying to stop her, even as it becomes increasingly clear that her protection is what's freezing Clara's development, and that her love has sparked an intellectual awakening, culminating at the end, where she develops self control over her behaviour in a situation where pretty much anyone could be excused for melting down.
In the end, she lets Clara marry in order for her to not have the certainty of happiness, but a hope. It's...kind of happy, but its always clear it still might all end in disaster. But the risk is worth it.
They spend 90% of the show, worrying about if this is the best thing for Clara, and it's still left ambiguous. In 50 first dates the people protecting her are just getting in the way of horny guy.
zoomers: living out the rest of their days in a mental ward without any memories or constitutive attachments.
boomers: living on boat with your kids with a man who re-dedicates himself to making you fall in love with him every day.
Yall are unreal.
Realistically, she isn’t truly able to consent to sex.
The story is fictional and fantastic. Goldfield's Syndrome isn't a real thing.
If I were her
But you're not, because you don't have a fictional disease used as a plot device to drive the setting of a RomCom.
I’d try to flee the house in any way possible.
But you'd have Magic Amnesia, so you'd just reset the following day. Possibly in a confusing location you don't recognize surrounded by people you don't know or trust, getting older without understanding any of it.
