Another romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day, this one being the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore reteam that was a hit with audiences, and just turned 20 last year. this movie charmed me enough in its initial release for me to buy the DVD, and before this, I would say I’ve seen this maybe four times total? this might have been my 5th. It has been a minute, and I do like some other Sandler movies more. plus, as you get older, some of the things you used to like, don’t age well. some do, some don’t. Didn’t like Ace Ventura as much, but thought The mask was still funny.
Here, 20 years later, Drew Barrymore is the reason to watch. All the reasons why people love her daytime talk show are visible in her bubbly and effective performance here, as a girl who has memory loss so she keeps reliving the same day over and over. She tends to bring out the best in Sandler, who is a bit more emotive than usual, and has a bit more of a connection with her than a lot of his other female co-stars of films past (remember his lack of anything with Reese Witherspoon in Little Nicky?)
Sandler already wants us to buy him as a ladies man, as the film opens with a host of ladies talking about how they had this one great date with him. He lies to get himself out of every single one, showing his phobia of commitment. Of course, Barrymore’s odd duck of a character will change that. love will be in the air, and Sandler will sound like he’s about to show a real emotion.
By this point, he had already worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on Punch Drunk Love, making some wonder if dramatic work wasn’t in his future. we now know it was, but you won’t find too much of that here. this is a pretty straightforward Sandler comedy with vague latent either homophobic or transphobic comedy (I couldn’t remember the joke, and the audio description supporting it didn’t seem to get it either), and that typical performance from Rob Schneider playing some ethnicity he isn’t, based on an accent that is steeped in stereotypes. You would think, at some point, someone would have said “can’t he just play who he is?” But, then again, his entire SNl career is summed up by two words. “Making copies.”
The audio description is OK for most of the film. It soars at the end when Barrymore shows Sandler what she’s been drawing, and she can’t explain it. There are a couple of other scenes done well, but for a comedy that relies a lot on sight gags and crass humor, the track seems to dodge some things, making jokes not offensive, but just unintelligible.
Still, I’m not running from this one like it is a burning building like I have a few other anniversary rewatches. The biggest reason for this is that Barrymore is the movie. The is the moment. She is the reason to watch, and she just happens to e stuck in another sophomoric effort from an actor who should have grown up a bit more by this point. There should feel like more of an evolution from The wedding Singer to 50 first Dates, yet somehow, if anything, it actually feels like we’re walking backward.
Fresh: Final Grade: B, Audio Description: B-