Fairy tales are archetypal stories in which we encode and pass down our collective understanding of the development of the human psyche. Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s ‘50 First Dates’ is a modern iteration of ‘Rapunzel’ from the Brothers Grimm, the story of a maiden locked in a tower. Like Rapunzel, Barrymore’s Lucy finds her way forward through sacred union with the King’s Son, Sandler’s Henry.

Where Rapunzel is locked in a tower, Lucy Whitmore is trapped in a never ending repeated day. Since her accident, her Father replicates for her the same day, October 13 with the assistance of his son, Lucy’s brother. Like Rapunzel, the condition for Lucy being trapped was caused inadvertently by her Father, who was driving at the time of the accident. Contrast Rapunzel’s father who, focused on acquiring the lettuce his wife desired, promised the yet unborn child to the Witch. Interestingly, Whitmore and her father were driving out to acquire a pineapple, the proverbial forbidden lettuce, for her father’s birthday.

This never ending day is akin to Rapunzel’s stone tower; in it, Lucy is oblivious to her own entrapment. Lucy’s father replicates this day to protect her rather than have her face the trauma of her condition anew daily with no hope of recovery or integration. His actions keep Lucy sealed in a bubble away from the rest of society. Though she moves about freely, driving each day to Hukilau Cafe, speaking with Sue, she cannot truly be in communication with anyone. She repeats the same compliment to Sue’s ‘new’ haircut daily, who smiles in reply through restrained sadness.

Sandler’s Henry, like the King’s Son, breaks into the tower. At first he visits each day, each time introducing himself anew as the King’s Son visited Rapunzel nightly calling ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.’ Like Rapunzel and the King’s Son formed a plan tying silk scarves into a rope, Henry linked Lucy’s fragmented memories together in videotapes. Their plan was working, right until Lucy awoke to a ‘stranger’ Henry beside her, and realized it could not be. Rapunzel foiled their plan on the eve of the night they were to steal away, revealing the King’s Son to the Witch by accident. The Witch, enraged, banished Rapunzel to isolation in the desert. Lucy, not wanting to be a burden, admitted herself in the mental institution. There, in a period of isolation, a maturing gestated. Rapunzel had given birth in isolation to twins, a boy and a girl. Lucy drew out of her unconscious images of Henry, in this period where she no longer had to depend on her father and brother to insulate her from her trauma. Finally, upon hearing Rapunzel’s voice that he knew from her beautiful singing, the blind Prince found Rapunzel again and his eyesight was healed. Lucy’s Father gave to Henry a CD, to let him know that Lucy was singing again, which she only did when she saw him. Matured, the Prince returned with Rapunzel and their children to his Kingdom where he was received with joy. Like him, Henry too matured.

50 First Dates is a reincarnation of Rapunzel. By breaking into her tower, Henry pulled Lucy forward into a life that was full despite her memory condition. Henry chose to see her condition as something that could be celebrated even it did also have to be managed. That transmutation through union is what is symbolized by the twins in Rapunzel and indeed is at the very heart of timeless stories we call ‘fairy tales’.