History YMMV / FiftyFirstDates

* EsotericHappyEnding: Many have felt that the ending is arguably this due to the sheer amount of FridgeHorror caused by the life Lucy is now living. (Example: She now has a young daughter whom she must meet for the first time ''every single day''. What kind of effect will that have on the daughter over time?)

* NightmareFuel: The movie actually addresses the potential problems that Lucy will have the longer she goes with her memory being the way it is, specifically waking up and looking into the mirror to see someone ten years older, as mentioned by Henry. Their solution is that they are giving her a full life even though they know the wake up point will be an issue every time. The ending of the movie she marries Henry and had to remind herself of their marriage, meaning she wakes up knowing she went to bed as a care-free girl and is now in a marriage with a stranger miles from home, though at least her father is with her at the end. Worse, they have a daughter, so unless they adopted or used a surrogate, she would have woken up pregnant for at least four months straight with the only memories being those from before her accident.

** Averted somewhat in that this inspired a real life treatment for patients with similar conditions, and it was found to help them in their therapy.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Many have felt that the ending is arguably this due to the sheer amount of FridgeHorror caused by the life Lucy is now living. (Example: She now has a young daughter whom she must meet for the first time ''every single day''. What kind of effect will that have on the daughter overtime?)

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Meta eample. The ending of the film inspired a similar treatment program for real life patients with similar conditions, and it's found to have helped them greatly.

* TheWoobie: Lucy and "10 Second Tom."

* TearJerker:
** The day where Lucy realizes on her own what has happened to her [[spoiler: and the fact that this is not the first time it's happened]].
** Lucy and Henry [[spoiler:editing Lucy's scrapbook so she'll have no memories of being with him.]]
** The whole montage of Lucy's father and brother getting everything ready so they can redo it all the next day, including repainting the mural in the garage Lucy painted for her father's birthday and [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich having to throw away the cake]] they had for the birthday. It really shows the unenviable situation the two find themselves in.
** Henry confronting Marlin on the fact that Lucy will one day wake up and see she's aged overnight. Marlin admits he's been dreading this, but can't think of a good long term solution.

** The whole montage of Lucy's father and brother getting everything ready so they can redo it all the next day, including repainting the mural in the garage Lucy painted for her father's birthday and [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich having to throw away the cake]] they had for the birthday. It really shows the unenviable situation.

** The whole montage of Lucy's father and brother getting everything ready so they can redo it all the next day, including repainting the mural in the garage Lucy painted for her father's birthday and having to throw away the cake they had for the birthday.

** The whole montage of Lucy's father and brother getting everything ready so they can redo it all the next day, including repainting the mural in the garage Lucy painted for her father's birthday.

* HarsherInHindsight: Creator/RobSchneider delivers a pretty decent performance as a native Hawaiian, but it serves as painful foreshadowing for Schneider's later career, which consists almost ''entirely'' of playing increasingly-offensive ethnic characters in Sandler's films.

** Henry's first recap video for Lucy claims that the Red Sox have won the World Series since her accident. This is followed by "Just kidding!" The movie came out in 2004, just a few months before the Red Sox won their first World Series of the 21st century.

* NightmareFuel: The movie actually addresses the potential problems that Lucy will have the longer she goes with her memory being the way it is, specifically waking up and looking into the mirror to see someone ten years older. Their solution is that they are giving her a full life even though they know the wake up point will be an issue every time. The ending of the movie she marries Henry and had to remind herself of their marriage, meaning she wakes up knowing she went to bed as a care-free girl and is now in a marriage with a stranger miles from home, though at least her father is with her at the end. Worse, they have a daughter, so unless they adopted or used a surrogate, she would have woken up pregnant for at least four months straight with the only memories being those from before her accident.

* ToughActToFollow: Some critics complained that the movie didn't live up to the promise of re-teaming Sandler and Barrymore after [[Film/TheWeddingSinger their more familiar collaboration]].

** Henry's assistant at the aquarium is named Alexa, which is rather amusing since Amazon came out with its virtual assistant of the same name.

** Perhaps not quite so much as one might believe. Given the movie's penultimate scene is the realization of Lucy beginning to hold on to her memories thanks to everything she was doing with Henry day after day, all these years later she may be in a much better mental place than where she was just a year after her accident, with no treatment other than repeating the same day over and over to keep her in a state of calm. Presumably the two of them would have talked out precautions to take to keep her from injuring herself or the baby during the pregnancy in the mornings before her memories fully came back to her, and they adjusted their lives around her condition to make sure they could both live as comfortably as possible.
* OneSceneWonder: Ten Second Tom.
* TearJerker: The day where Lucy realizes on her own what has happened to her [[spoiler: and the fact that this is not the first time it's happened]].