50 First Date Rapes

Genre: Psychological Horror

Stars: Adam Sandler (Henry Roth); Drew Barrymore (Lucy Whitmore);

Review:
Henry Roth (Sandler) plays an emotionally crippled misogynist who preys on vulnerable women. We first meet him when he is breaking up with a one-night stand. Unable to interact in any meaningful way, or commit for any period of time, he is breaking up by concocting an involved fantasy. The parallels between Henry Roth and (American Psycho) Patrick Bateman are immediately obvious.

Roth goes into a restaurant and meets his dream girl in the form of Lucy (Drew Barrymore). Roth uses all his normal lines to draw in his quarry. He arranges to meet her the next day.

When he returns, things have got better. It turns out Lucy had been in an accident over a year ago and only has short term memory of one day. Roth realises that he has met his perfect woman. If he can insinuate himself into her life, he can get victimise this women all he wants without fear of long-term commitment.

Lucy is surrounded by well-meaning but ineffectual ‘friends.’ Her Father and Brother have long since given up hope and placate their own existence by keeping Lucy in an artificial time-warp; when she arrives home, all is like it was the day before. They half-heartedly to dissuade Roth from pursuing Lucy, but eventually cave in. This is in part a mixture of Roth’s sublime confidence trickery, and their weakness. Perhaps they see a way to remove some of the Horror from their own lives.

The film ends with Roth virtually abducting Lucy from a mental asylum. He does this with the permission of Lucy’s Father and the asylum doctor. The real horror here is ease with which the director makes the audience think that Roth is doing a decent, sweet thing.

The film does not have a happy ending. Lucy ends up pregnant, trapped on Henry’s boat in the Arctic. She continues to wake up every day, here only perception of truth a video which Henry has ‘kindly’ made for her.

Roll Credits.