For director Andy Delaney, that predictability was part of the appeal of 40 Dates and 40 Nights, which stars Bailee Madison as Leah, a woman who accepts her grandmother’s challenge to go on 40 dates in exchange for a year’s rent. Joel Courtney plays Mason, the longtime friend waiting patiently in rom-com territory while a parade of possible suitors demonstrates why dating apps should come with hazard pay. Here, the visual fireworks gave way to something trickier: making a premise involving 40 dates feel recognizably human. Mia is the only woman he has seriously dated, although their story included a two-year breakup, heartbreak and reconciliation. That gave Courtney enough real emotional wreckage to understand Mason without enduring 40 terrible dinners himself.