50 FIRST DATES
A warm, funny romance for discerning adults, not family night.
Should You Watch It?
50 FIRST DATES is better than its crude-comedy packaging suggests. Its romance is surprisingly sweet, and Henry Roth’s transformation from womanizer to earnest caregiver gives the story real emotional weight. His continuing sacrifice for Lucy, along with the devotion of Lucy’s father and brother, makes unselfish love and family commitment the film’s strongest qualities.
But those strengths come with a significant cost. The movie treats premarital sex casually, fills its dialogue with sexual discussion and innuendo, and uses frequent foul language. Its romantic-comedy worldview often prefers feelings over truth and affection over morality.
If you are an adult who can thoughtfully engage those problems, the film has enough warmth and substance to be worth seeing. For children, young teens, or family movie night, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESHenry Roth lives in Hawaii and has built his life around seducing vacationers before moving on to the next woman. Then he meets Lucy Whitmore, whose rare affliction causes her to forget each day’s events after she sleeps.
Lucy does not remember Henry from one day to the next. Instead of abandoning the relationship, Henry faces the difficulty, gets to know Lucy’s family, and begins reshaping his life around love and care.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is an entertaining, emotionally satisfying comedy with meaningful flaws. The slapstick recalls other Adam Sandler movies, but his performance here is notably adept, sensitive, and more controlled. The relationship between Henry and Lucy has a strong emotional pull, and the movie is often very funny.
The crude jokes, frequent language, and constant sexual discussion weaken an otherwise warm film. The premise is extremely similar to Groundhog Day, but the movie’s message of transformative love gives it more substance than a typical sophomoric comedy.
The Worldview
The film begins with a man whose life is organized around sexual conquest. Its romantic-comedy assumptions elevate feelings above truth, present affection as more powerful than morality, and treat premarital sex casually. The source review also identifies endorsements of homosexual lifestyles and pagan elements.
Against that, the movie offers genuine redemptive ideas. Henry forsakes his old ways and reorganizes his life around sacrificial care for Lucy. Her father and brother have likewise committed themselves to helping her. Family is honored, and the story argues that putting yourself first is ultimately unsatisfying.
The film’s strongest idea is that love can transform a selfish person into someone willing to sacrifice for another. That aligns with the biblical call to love others selflessly, though the movie’s sexual ethics and preference for emotion over truth depart sharply from Scripture. “Love does not insist on its own way” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Romantic worldview with pagan elements that values feelings above truth, with endorsements of premarital sex and homosexual lifestyles, but also with biblical, moral, redemptive Christian notions of transformative love and the importance of family; 29 obscenities (over half of them slang for body parts), four light profanities, three obscene gestures, and distasteful scene in which walrus vomits on someone; brief comic violence in which man is hit by shoe and another by a club; fornication implied, lead character has reputation for being a philanderer and serial fornicator, and frequent light sexual innuendoes; no nudity; characters seen drinking in bar; one character often references his marijuana use; and, endorsements of premarital sex, man makes disparaging comments about his wife in front of their children and character lies to seduce his dates. GENRE: Romanic Comedy
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Henry changes when he begins putting Lucy’s needs before his own. What does sacrificial love look like in your relationships?
Philippians 2:3–4 · 1 Corinthians 13:4–7The movie often treats feelings as more important than truth. Why can strong feelings be unreliable guides, and how should Christians pursue truth?
John 14:6 · Ephesians 4:14–15Henry’s old lifestyle treats women as temporary conquests. How does Scripture describe the dignity and worth of other people?
Genesis 1:27 · Philippians 2:3Lucy’s family commits itself to caring for her. What does faithful family care require when someone faces a long-term difficulty?
Galatians 6:2 · 1 Timothy 5:8The Final Word
50 FIRST DATES is often funny, emotionally warm, and more substantial than expected. Its picture of transformative love and family devotion is heartening, but its sexual attitudes and language make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For a cleaner family choice, see.
