A couple weeks ago we watched
The Hudsucker Proxy. This movie was starring Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The premise of this movie was: a naive guy from a small town goes to a large city, looks for a purpose; success... Is befriended by a fast-talking city girl who pretends she is something she is not, recons information on the guy at his expense. Later things come to a head and she reveals who she is after developing an endearing sense of likeness for the guy. The guy then falls into a downward spiral in which his character suffers, and through encouragement the girl brings him back to his feet, in which there is an enlightenment on part of the guy, and he reconciles with the girl. The end of the movie can go a number of ways, depending on the individual plot and story line.
In Hudsucker Robbin's character Norville comes to New York in hopes of a promising job. He manages to land in the middle of the company stock scam, orchestrated by the board of directors over fear of losing stock options following the untimely suicide of their founder and owner. Harry is propositioned by the chairmen of Hudsucker Corporation to accept the job as acting president of their company, which he accepts. Shortly after taking the job he meets Leigh's character Amy, who is a reporter for the local paper yet claims to be the company's publicist. They develop a professional relationship while Amy collects information on Norville at his expense. Sometime into the movie Norville invents a loop-like toy that is meant to be swung around the hip in a "hula" motion. This toy is then marketed and soon catches on and becomes an instant success with kids everywhere. Through this success Hudsucker's stock shoots up and Amy takes advantage of Norville's naivete as she smears his name all over the city in her articles. It doesn't last very long tho, before she starts to see some good in Norville. When she tries to actually get through to him, things start to spiral out of control as he looses focus of his integrity and lets his success define who he is. The pinnacle of this story is when Norville abruptly looses his position as president, and shortly after decides he wants to end his life. He takes a jump off of the penthouse suite of the Hudsucker building and has an out of body experience with the founder of Hudsucker. His life is spared and he reclaims the company name, reinstating a new board of directors and brings the company's reputation back on track. Norville and Amy reconcile and the movie ends as Moses (Bill Cobbs) narrates the epilogue.
50 First Dates, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, is kinda like Hudsucker in that the basic premise is the same. In Dates we have a guy who meets a sweet girl at a diner in Hawaii. Lucy (Barrymore) has a fascination with waffles and when Henry (Sandler) walks in for breakfast he sees her at the table playing with her food. This is the initial meet, but then things get interesting. Harry returns to the diner the next day to say hello to his new-found friend, but when he warms up to her she freaks out as if she has never met him. The waitress has to pull Harry aside and explain to him that she suffers from a form of amnesia that has been with her for years. She simply forgets everything that happened that day the moment she falls asleep. So as if like a sort of groundhog day effect, Lucy is living the same day every day. Harry realizes the profound implications this poses, and backs off. After some time he decides to try and feel Lucy out, to see where it might lead. He meets her family, learns more about their coping methods to her condition, and works with them to try and "coax" her out of her amnesia. So instead of the fast-talking city girl, we have a local islander who is instead a man, taking on the task of manipulating this naive girl into liking him. The movie as a whole is not an exact formula of the same pattern that Hudsucker looks to follow, yet it shares some of the same aspects. Later in Dates there are some hi jinks that ensue and the scam is uncovered; Lucy finds out about her condition and her family's attempt to keep it from her. So we have the revelation of the scam, which broadens Lucy's idea of what each day is going to bring her. But after a little time to collect her thoughts, she realizes that she wants to be with Harry and so in a dynamic sort of way, she accepts her condition and walks into a relationship with him. Going forward, Harry and Lucky get married, and they spend the rest of their days waking up every morning, Lucy unaware of the life she's lived up to that point, which goes on as far as we know because that is how the movie ends.
