FIFTY FIRST DATES

US, 2004, 99 minutes, Colour.
Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Dan Aykroyd.
Directed by Peter Segal

Uh-oh, Groundhog Day territory. However, this slapstick romance uses the time repetition quite nicely even if strains credibility. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes to the same day, day after day, and learns more about people and what went on in the town. Here, Drew Barrymore has lost her long-term memory and wakes up, day after day, remembering nothing of the day before.

That helps explain the title - with even more than 50 first dates.

Adam Sandler is presented as the Lothario of Hawaii in the opening credits. That is soon forgotten and we see him as a nice man with a walrus and a penguin as friends as he works at the zoo and dreams of building his boat and sailing to Alaska. He also has a local friend, Rob Schneider acting up and liable to Hawaian authorities extraditing him for over-caricature of the islanders.

Then he notices Lucy and falls in love with her. The challenge is to get her to fall in love with him afresh every day. Can her do it? Of course - with the help of her father and her body-building, naive steroid-taking brother (Sean Astin post-Rings), doctor Dan Aykroyd and a video.

Adam Sandler is back to his nice gawky type. Drew Barrymore is quite charming. The romance is nice - but a critic friend said he preferred the initial slapstick with walruses and vomit etc rather than the romantic mush. You can take your pick.

1. A popular romantic comedy? The title?

2. The blend of slapstick and romantic comedy?

3. The Hawaiian settings, the island, the houses, the Sea World?

4. Mental illness, accidents? The institution, the people with short-term memory - even to ten seconds?

5. The prologue and Henry Roth, fantasy or real, the Lothario, the range of women and their testimonies? His meeting Lucy and his absolute change?

6. The real Henry, at work, with the penguin, the walrus, with Ula and his friendship? With his assistant? The children? The comic sequences and the walrus vomiting_?

7. Breakfast, the meeting with Lucy, staring at her, the toothpick and its effect? The information about her? The discovery about her memory? His being infatuated, going to the café every day, the staff having bets and his failing to attract Lucy? The gradual success? The dates, the variety of his tactics at breakfast, the toughs, the assault, his being tied up?

8. Lucy's father, Doug, at home, the visualising of the accident on the road? The father and Doug approving of Henry's routines? The breakfast, the same food, the same preamble, paintings, the birthday cake, the discussions about the video of The Sixth Sense? Her going to sleep and not remembering? The father and his care? Doug, support, the background of his bodybuilding, the urine test and the steroids, his sexual dreams_?

9. The institution and the doctor, the explanations, Tom and his ten-second memory?

10. Sue and company at the diner, their friendship, support?

11. Making the video, losing the video experience, the information? Repeating it each day?

12. Lucy, her character, charm, the background of her being a teacher, the breakfast, her friendship with Sue and the staff? The effect of seeing the video? Seeing it every day?

13. Henry, being nicer, waking up, the explanation, the change, the decision of Lucy to move away, burning the journal, the separation? Her overhearing Henry about his dreams of going to Alaska?

14. Henry and the boat, the trips, the failure, his hopes?

15. Ula, Rob Schneider and his slapstick comedy, his children, a slob, yet the jokes and the firm friendship?

16. The assistant, the jokes, the walrus? Doug and his attraction to her?

17. The visit to the institution, the studio, Lucy and her drawings of Henry, her dreams? The finale with the boat, their daughter, her being reminded of what had happened by the video every day?

18. The final credits and the sketches?