CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

There's Something About Mary

Director

Bobby Farrelly

Peter Farrelly

Year

1998

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

There’s Something About Mary opened up the gate to a new kind of comedy which had been forgotten for a while and then took it a step further. It was, not surprisingly, a huge hit. When I first saw it I have to admit I didn’t find it that amusing. I thought the humor was puerile and way too offensive. I caught it again years later and my perspective changed, I found it hilarious and understood that such low standards were exactly what the directors were aiming for.

The story begins in the 70's. Ted (Ben Stiller) is a jerk who is asked by Mary (Cameron Diaz), the most gorgeous girl in town, to go with her to the prom. Unfortunately a tragic event ends up with their plans and their short rendezvous goes nowhere. A couple of decades later Ted is still in love with Mary but doesn’t know where she lives, so he hires a private detective, Pat Healy (Matt Dillon), to track her down in Miami. As Pat finds her, and falls in love with her as well, chaos ensues.

Brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly directed from a script they wrote along with Ed Decter and John J. Strauss. After Mary was released they became well-known for their trademark humor, although they haven’t been able to repeat the success they had with it. That said, everyone remembers this movie and that’s as high a compliment as it can be paid.

The comedy is brought to another level: the movie is filled with jokes that make fun of animals, old people, retarded people, you name it. And they’re not of the cute type; it is as politically incorrect as it can get. It also takes plenty of shots at scatological humor and there’s some slapstick thrown in there for good measure. Some of the stuff works and some of it doesn’t, but the interesting part is that it mostly depends on which character is delivering it. The flick suffers from a multiple personality problem; there are characters that are very funny (Diaz, Stiller, Lyn Shaye), others that are hit-and miss (Dillon) and others that simply don’t work (Chris Elliot, Lee Evans). It’s not the actors’ problem (for the most part), but the way their characters are written.

The main joke is that every man that meets Mary falls in love with her. Through a lot of funny misunderstandings, Mary must decide what to do and who to choose even though she doesn't know everything that is going on behind. All said and done it could be labeled as a romantic comedy, albeit a pretty sick one. And it is very entertaining all the way despite some stretches where nothing funny happens. The resolution, when truths are revealed, decisions are taken and all the characters converge, is spot-on.

And yes, the classic hair-gel scene is as memorable and laugh-out-loud funny as it was made to be.

This wasn’t Cameron Diaz’s break-out role, although it was the first time she anchored a hit movie and did so with impressive charisma and grace. I’ve always thought of her as very talented, and her Mary is simply unforgettable. Ben Stiller makes a nice couple with her and plays what is arguably the only other normal human being populating this story; a nice and relatable turn. Matt Dillon, Chris Elliot, Lee Evans and Brett Favre, the other fellows going after Mary, play it broader and do so with mixed results. And Lyn Shaye is a hoot as Magda (those aren’t her real breasts by the way).

“Is that… is that hair gel?”

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