50 First Dates, Part I
50 First Dates is a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. In a previous post,
I talked about two types of mind, body, and spirit use when it comes to
romantic comedies. This one is the type with two sets of mind, body,
and spirit characters - one on the side of the male lead and the other
on the side of the female lead characters.
For this portion of the analysis, I will focus on the female lead's side of the mirror.
Lucy is an artist, a fact that should already have you thinking 'spirit character.' She comes into the same cafe every day and has waffles for breakfast. Instead of eating the waffles right away, though, she makes little cabins or tepees with them.
When she meets Henry (Adam Sandler), who is a veterinarian at a local aquarium, one of the first things she notices is that is hands smell like fish. Normally this would be off-putting (Henry even says, 'Fish don't even like this smell.'), but Lucy likes it. She says it reminds her of the feeling she gets when her father and brother come back home from an extended fishing trip.
When she and Henry go their separate ways, she does a little victory dance to celebrate their meeting and getting to know one another. She is embarrassed when she is caught, but not nearly as embarrassed as Henry, who was also dancing.
Lucy has a brain injury, a central fact in the plot of the story. Her memory is wiped clean every night as she sleeps, so when she sees Henry each morning, she doesn't recognize him. At the end of the movie, she still doesn't remember Henry consciously, but she does picture him in her dreams.
Marlin is Lucy's dad. He devises a scheme to 'trick' Lucy every day into believing it is the day of the accident that injured Lucy, the day after the last day she remembers. He develops a whole routine, which he and his son go through every evening, to reset their home so Lucy doesn't suspect anything is wrong.
When Lucy meets Henry, Marlin is protective at first, but he is more open when he realizes Lucy only sings on days when she meets Henry. Later, when Henry proves he has Lucy's best interests in mind by suggesting a new routine, he shows a higher level of respect toward Henry. Marlin decides, however, to leave it up to Lucy as to whether she wants to implement the new routine.
When Henry insists Lucy might remember him, at least on some level, Marlin disagrees and goes with the doctor's diagnosis. He says Henry could go 'to the moon and back' and Lucy would never know the difference.
Doug is Marlin's son and Lucy's brother. He is into muscles and steroids, and takes every opportunity to show off his build, even to himself in a mirror. He was competing in the Mr. Hawaii contest, but was disqualified for steroid use.
When Doug sees Henry for the first time, his first reaction is to try to beat him up. Several times in the film, his first response to the situation is aggression, a fact that leads the doctor to say, "That's the 'roids talking."
Near the end of the film, Marlin and Doug are delivering a gift from a mutual friend to Henry for his trip to Alaska, a box of peanut butter cups and Spam. Doug finally sees what's in the box and decides to take it for himself.
Next post will cover the mind, body, and spirit characters on Henry's side of the mirror.
For this portion of the analysis, I will focus on the female lead's side of the mirror.
The Spirit Character: Lucy (Drew Barrymore)
Lucy is an artist, a fact that should already have you thinking 'spirit character.' She comes into the same cafe every day and has waffles for breakfast. Instead of eating the waffles right away, though, she makes little cabins or tepees with them.
When she meets Henry (Adam Sandler), who is a veterinarian at a local aquarium, one of the first things she notices is that is hands smell like fish. Normally this would be off-putting (Henry even says, 'Fish don't even like this smell.'), but Lucy likes it. She says it reminds her of the feeling she gets when her father and brother come back home from an extended fishing trip.
When she and Henry go their separate ways, she does a little victory dance to celebrate their meeting and getting to know one another. She is embarrassed when she is caught, but not nearly as embarrassed as Henry, who was also dancing.
Lucy has a brain injury, a central fact in the plot of the story. Her memory is wiped clean every night as she sleeps, so when she sees Henry each morning, she doesn't recognize him. At the end of the movie, she still doesn't remember Henry consciously, but she does picture him in her dreams.
The Mind Character: Marlin (Blake Clark)
Marlin is Lucy's dad. He devises a scheme to 'trick' Lucy every day into believing it is the day of the accident that injured Lucy, the day after the last day she remembers. He develops a whole routine, which he and his son go through every evening, to reset their home so Lucy doesn't suspect anything is wrong.
When Lucy meets Henry, Marlin is protective at first, but he is more open when he realizes Lucy only sings on days when she meets Henry. Later, when Henry proves he has Lucy's best interests in mind by suggesting a new routine, he shows a higher level of respect toward Henry. Marlin decides, however, to leave it up to Lucy as to whether she wants to implement the new routine.
When Henry insists Lucy might remember him, at least on some level, Marlin disagrees and goes with the doctor's diagnosis. He says Henry could go 'to the moon and back' and Lucy would never know the difference.
The Body Character: Doug (Sean Astin)
Doug is Marlin's son and Lucy's brother. He is into muscles and steroids, and takes every opportunity to show off his build, even to himself in a mirror. He was competing in the Mr. Hawaii contest, but was disqualified for steroid use.
When Doug sees Henry for the first time, his first reaction is to try to beat him up. Several times in the film, his first response to the situation is aggression, a fact that leads the doctor to say, "That's the 'roids talking."
Near the end of the film, Marlin and Doug are delivering a gift from a mutual friend to Henry for his trip to Alaska, a box of peanut butter cups and Spam. Doug finally sees what's in the box and decides to take it for himself.
Next post will cover the mind, body, and spirit characters on Henry's side of the mirror.
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