There’s Something About Mary (1998)

There's Something About Mary (1998) is raunchy classic that doesn't take itself too seriously. The Farrelly Brothers at their funniest set some new standards for modern comedy. It's full of completely inappropriate jokes that spare nobody: male or female, handicapped or able bodied, black or white, rich or poor, straight or gay, animal or vegetable. But in the core of the film is a real heart, something impossibly optimistic and reassuring to which almost everyone can identify with. And Cameron Diaz is wonderful and charming as Mary, the girl every guy is after.


Spanish postcard by Memory Card, no. 486. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998). Spanish lobby card for Algo pasa con Mary.


Belgian postcard by Boomerang.be. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998). Caption: We zijn nu nog leuker... (We are now even more fun...).

Everybody is fixated on Mary

Sad-eyed magazine writer Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller) was a geek in high school, who was going to go to the prom with one of the most popular girls in school, Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz). The prom date never happened, because Ted had a very unusual accident with his zipper. He never got over the girl of his high school dreams, who vanished from his life after a single date in which getting horizontal meant being carted away in an ambulance.

Thirteen years later, 29-year-old Ted realises he is still in love with Mary. On the advice of his best friend Dom Woganowski (Chris Elliott), Ted hires a private detective, the sleazy Pat Healy (Matt Dillon), to track her down. Pat finds her in Miami, and she's grown up beautiful. Healy discovers that she is an orthopedic surgeon living in Miami. After observing her for a few days, Healy becomes fixated on her. Pat decides he wants to date her. He stalks her, finds out everything she wants in a man, and poses as just that.

Healy gives Ted some false information to keep him away from her. Healy reports back that she's a walrus in a wheelchair and has four kids by three different men. Ted thinks maybe he should check up on her anyway, to see if he can be helpful to her, but Healy explains she's now en route to Japan as a mail-order bride.

Healy and Mary spend several weeks dating before her architect friend Tucker (Lee Evans) exposes Healy as a fraud. Tucker tells her that Healy is a suspected serial murderer. An enraged Healy follows him and discovers Tucker actually is a pizza delivery boy named Norm Phipps who also is infatuated with Mary. Years earlier, Norm intentionally injured himself in order to get close to her, hoping she would take him on as a patient. He pretends to still be disabled in order to gain Mary's sympathy and uses his friendship with her to drive away other suitors.

Ted drives to Florida to see Mary. During the drive, he picks up a hitchhiker who leaves a dead body in Ted's car. Ted is mistakenly arrested for the murder and bailed out by Dom after the police catch the real killer. Ted finds Mary and they begin dating. Things go well until an anonymous letter reveals that Ted hired Healy to find her, causing Mary to get upset and dump Ted. Enraged, Ted then confronts Healy and Norm, who deny sending the letter. Things come to a head when Dom, who is Mary's ex-boyfriend "Woogie", shows up in her apartment and admits to writing the letter. Mary previously had a restraining order against Dom after he became obsessed with her, which started again when Ted found her...


Italian postcard by Promocard, no. K 1298. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998).


Italian postcard by Promocard, no. K 1299. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Matt Dillon and Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998).

An unalloyed exercise in bad taste

During the 1990s, the Farelly brothers made a series of gross out comedies including Dumb and Dumber (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1994), Kingpin (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1996), and Me, Myself, and Irene (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 2000). Their There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998) has aged relatively well after 25 years. The funny gags come in a constant wave, aren't forced or out of place and expertly walk the tightrope between politically incorrect and unkind. Each joke goes somewhere, is really big and has a punchline. It is now a classic 'modern' comedy and to us the Farrelly Brothers' best film.

The characters seem real enough to be in the crazy situations they bring themselves into. Ben Stiller is great in his own way, lovable and dull at the same time. He and Cameron Diaz blend very well together. Diaz is adorable, beautiful, and a marvel to look at. You understand what the title means without ever having it explained. Her cute, perky charm clicks with all the male characters but also with audiences.

Also terrific are the supporting players. Matt Dillon is outstanding in one of his best roles. Chris Elliott is excellent as well as are Lee Evans and Harland Williams as the six-minute abs guy. All of them have the perfect comedy timing to really make all of their characters blend together well. Jonathan Richman and his drummer are especially valuable in their cameo bits that bookend the various acts in the film, with songs that manage to be as funny and affecting as the show they are built around. And then there is of course, Puffy the drugged up dog.

There are several hilarious moments in this film: the hysterical prom sequence, the three dog sequences (Puffy in a sedative coma, Puffy on speed, Puffy in a body cast), the hitchhiker sequence and its follow-up interrogation at police headquarters, the infamous hair gel scene, and old flame Woogie's sexual assault on Mary's closet. The gross out nature of the film was original at the time and was ripped off in the next decade. After this film was successfully released, there was a wave of all sorts of "gross" comedies but the majority of them missed the boat because they didn't realise that this film has a very big heart at the core. The makers of the film, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, reveal in their DVD commentary that Ted's reaction to Healy's news of Mary's condition is the key to making the film work, and they are right.

20th Century Fox released There's Something About Mary theatrically on 15 July 1998 and the film became a major box office success, grossing over $369 million worldwide against its $23 million budget. Worldwide, it became the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year. It received generally positive reviews from critics who praised its humor and Diaz's performance. Roger Ebert, the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times: "What a blessed relief is laughter. It flies in the face of manners, values, political correctness and decorum. It exposes us for what we are, the only animal with a sense of humour. There's Something About Mary is an unalloyed exercise in bad taste, and contains five or six explosively funny sequences. OK, five explosive, one moderate. I love it when a movie takes control, sweeps away my doubts and objections, and compels me to laugh. I'm having a physical reaction, not an intellectual one. There's such freedom in laughing so loudly. I feel cleansed."


Italian postcard by Promocard, no. K 1301. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998).


Italian postcard by Promocard, no. K 1302. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, Cameron Diaz, Chris Elliott and Lee Evans in There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998).

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Wikipedia and IMDb.