Riddhika Parmar, Week 15: 50 First Dates
Riddhika Parmar
Week 15 - 4/27/22
50 First Dates
Movies are a great way to explore different worlds; I remember watching a movie called 50 First Dates. I enjoyed this movie for many reasons, and it also gave me a lot to think about regarding memory.
The movie is about Lucy (Drew Barrymore) and Henry’s (Adam Sandler) relationship. Lucy has been in a car accident, so she only remembers her life before that accident. Every day after the accident, she goes to sleep and wakes up the next day having no memory of the prior day. In a way, the movie is kind of like another great movie called Groundhog Day. One day, Henry meets Lucy and they have a great connection and agree to meet the next day. But, when Henry meets Lucy the next day, she gets mad at him and finds him to be a stranger. This happens every single day throughout the movie, and Henry must patiently make Lucy fall in love with him in new, creative ways every day. Lucy’s condition is similar to a real-life disorder called anterograde amnesia (caused by damage to the hippocampus) that affects short term memory, lasting several minutes, days or weeks.
This movie is beautifully made in how it develops the romantic love between Henry and Lucy. It depicts how unconditionally Henry falls in love with Lucy and basically becomes, in many ways, her lifelong caregiver. It also depicts the depth of selfless love that Lucy’s family and other friends shower her with.
At one point in the movie, Lucy is remembering Henry despite her anterograde amnesia. Although she can’t remember Henry, she is painting his face one day based on a dream she has, but she doesn’t consciously remember who he is or why she is painting his face. This made me wonder if dreams are somehow a way around amnesia. The hippocampus, which is located in the temporal lobe of the brain, is not just responsible for remembering and recreating memories, but also for dreams and imagination. Often, what we dream depicts an aspect of reality and reinterprets it into a new experience. Even people who have amnesia, due to damage in the hippocampus, dream occasional real events. In the dream, they are in fact remembering a memory even though consciously, when awake, they have no physical memory of the event.
Finally, the movie also conveyed a type of remembering that was still meaningful. It showed that Lucy could also be in love with Henry, in her own way. This is similar to studies of Alzheimer’s patients who, although they didn’t remember their caregivers directly, “remembered” good feelings (like love and happiness) they had toward their caregivers even if they couldn’t remember the exact event. There was some memory of an embodied positive experience.
photo credit: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/news/a48933/michelle-philpots-amnesia-true-story-50-first-dates/
Credit
https://www.neuropsyfi.com/reviews/50-first-dates
https://screenrant.com/50-first-dates-movie-drew-barrymore-amnesia-explained/#:~:text=Lucy's%20condition%20in%2050%20First,his%20memory%20every%2010%20seconds
https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-anterograde-amnesia-4581313#:~:text=Anterograde%20amnesia%20is%20a%20condition,remember%20events%20that%20have%20happened
https://www.brain-injury-law-center.com/blog/traumatic-brain-injury-and-anterograde-amnesia/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00637/full
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100412151817.htm#:~:text=Summary%3A,of%20individuals%20with%20Alzheimer's%20disease
This definitely seems like a movie I would watch on a plane or trapped in a hotel room, but the concept behind it is very interesting. This disorder kind of reminds me of Capgras syndrome which is when someone believes their friends or loved ones were replaced by imposters, but it is interesting how memory can play a huge part in mental and psychological disorders. I wonder if the movie consulted an actual expert on psychological/brain disorders before making the movie.
ReplyDeleteAdam Sandler is one of my favorite Hollywood actors and I started liking him when he played the main character in Happy Gilmore. I have seen movies with similar concepts in the past but I feel you bring some good points about the significance of dreams. I find it astonishing that after a good night's rest I can actually remember events that happened in my dream. I think this relates to the concept of the subconscious Winter mentioned in our Socratic seminar. Maybe trauma can have a large effect on our subconscious mind.
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ReplyDeleteIf dreams are a way to retrieve memories lost to amnesia, I wonder if music therapy works in a similar way, getting the subconscious to resurface its memories to the conscious. More interestingly though, I wonder if a movie like First Dates if somehow converted to a study in real life could provide more insight into fate and how love is formed. There are a multitude of people who believe that everyone has a soulmate so in that case, no matter the circumstances of the two people, they should eventually fall in love. However, a lot of people also think that love can be circumstantial in that very specific scenarios and series of events have to occur that often form for a relationship. In this case, it would be interesting to see if the different scenarios would have prevented them from ever falling in love. It would be really disappointing if having just one bad day or seeing the wrong person a second too late is all it takes to lose a potential love.
ReplyDeleteHi Riddhika! 50 First Dates sounds like such an interesting movie and I really admire Henry's patience and dedication to Lucy. I've seen videos of Alzheimer's patients remembering aspects of their pasts through musical triggers. It's very interesting to see how memory, like Lucy's, can be triggered through such specific experiences. Perhaps it was also the power of love.
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ReplyDeleteI remember watching 50 first dates when I was extremely young. I cried then and I cried last month when I watched it again. I love how our powerful unconscious memories such as feelings of comfort, love, hatred, or fear never stop fighting their way through any obstacle in the mind. Some part of Lucy knew and remembered every day she spent with Henry. As she watched that video of her life every day, she never once questioned its validity. She knew that she felt unconditional love for Henry and her daughter. While the movie was fictional, I have never seen a greater display of perseverance and love than Henry’s commitment to Lucy’s happiness.
Hi Riddhika! 50 First Dates sounds like such an interesting movie, and I would love to watch it soon. Your idea of dreams as a counter force towards amnesia. This reminds me of a movie called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I have not watched but read about on Wikipedia. Not to spoil it, but an aspect of the movie is the main character, Joel, hiding his deepest and most special memories about his ex-girlfriend in his dreams to prevent them from getting erased. I might not be explaining it spot on, but it relates to your juxtaposition of dreams versus amnesia/forgetting. Thanks for your movie recommendation and your great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Riddhika! 50 First Dates sounds like an incredible movie. I’ve heard of it before but I don’t think I ever got to the point where I watched it. Definitely something I hope to do soon though. It’s incredible to see the relationships between the characters, Henry and Lucy in particular. The unconscious memories are the ones that stand out the most for sure though, because it’s powerful to see how much it impacts them and their relationship. Henry truly loved Lucy and wanted to help her gain happiness more than anything else. His commitment to that was definitely something I found astonishing.
ReplyDeleteHi Riddhika! This movie sounds so interesting! I am sure that I have heard of it before, but I never realized that it would have a psychological explanation for the reason Lucy is unable to form new memories. In psych we learned about anterograde amnesia but through this movie I am finally able to understand what it would be like to live with anterograde amnesia. Though it does sound like a terribly exasperating cognitive disorder to have, the way Henry continuously tries to get Lucy to fall in love with him is so heartwarming.
ReplyDeleteHi Riddhika, your post reminds me of a movie called "Memento," directed by Christopher Nolan. It features a person that has amnesia and constantly lives in a dislocated world; he uses his body to write notes to make sure the "future" him knows what to do. Movies are a great medium to explore the little-known cases of loss of memory or extremely good memory that most people do not get to see everyday.
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