In a sort of opposite Groundhog Day, Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) meets a girl Lucy (Drew Barrymore), who recent head injury allows her to remember no more than a day at a time. The idea provides for an interesting spin on the romantic comedy. Henry has to introduce himself to her everyday, even after they get engaged, and after they get married.

Because it spends so much time exploring its premise, there is less time for the traditional Sandler comedy, such as an ambiguously gendered assistant and a scene where Lucy beats Rob Schneider with a baseball bat. Sandler actually gets less of the jokes than Schneider, who plays a comic relief type character, and which is unfortunate because he’s really not that funny here. Even more unfortunate is Sean Astin, who plays Lucy’s bodybuilding brother who comprises another comic character that’s really not that funny.

Henry’s attempt to woo Lucy every day is the film’s focus, however, which is also unfortunate because it’s rarely very interesting. Henry tries out different things everyday, some of which succeed and some which fail, but it seems he’s only doing it for the audience’s sake. It seems like, unless he was just having fun, he would find something that works and do the exact same thing everyday. This makes you wonder why he’s really doing it at all. 50 First Dates does its best to make Lucy look charming, and convince us that Henry would want to live a life where he had to introduce himself everyday, but it really just feels like its trying to stretch a novel idea into new way to accomplish something mediocre.