Their favourite thing to do together was settle down on the couch, open a bottle of wine and watch 50 First Dates, the 2004 romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. In the film, Barrymore’s character has a fictional kind of amnesia, causing her to forget each day when she falls asleep, and Sandler decides to win her over again each and every new day.
As they watched, they enjoyed pointing out the flaws in this premise, in particular the fact that the ending implies a series of experiences far more in line with a horror film than a comedy. It was a fun way for them to bond, and they usually made time to watch it every couple of months.
Sometimes they would joke about what they would do if one of them somehow ended up with the same condition as Barrymore’s character. They would concoct elaborate schemes, but also agreed that the best thing to do would probably be to tell the truth, since they were already together, and wouldn’t need to shoehorn an introduction into every morning of their lives.
Still, their connection over this movie and other experiences they had shared wasn’t enough, and they slowly drifted apart. They wanted different things out of life, and after a year or two, agreed that it was best to go their separate ways.
They went on to date other people, and soon discovered that many, many of these people shared their opinions on 50 First Dates and the bizarre behaviour of Sandler’s character, not to mention the horrific elements that had been glossed over in the film.
They discovered that, despite what they had thought, they weren’t so special in that respect, after all, and maybe it had been unwise to base so much of their personalities around observations that were actually fairly widely shared.
Every day of their lives felt much the same after that: not because either of them came down with the condition, but because the sheer weight of cultural opinion had worn away some of the magic of their worlds.
They struggled, in their own ways, to find something, anything, that would make them feel unique again, even just for a moment.
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A Quick Recommendation
‘Ted’ by Steve Wilson, in Miracle Monacle, begins with a murder on the sidelines of a corporate event. From there it shifts into a ghost story, but one that moves on to different characters and different times, revealing how they deal with grief, regret and loneliness.
Ted’s ghost was only able to float beside his body for a few minutes. He watched his own inscrutable face. He wanted to be furious or grief-stricken, but without a body, it was difficult to feel.
It’s filled with unexpected moments and scenes, and I loved the way it goes beyond just Ted and into something more.
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