There's Something About Mary (1998)

reviewed by
Edward Johnson-Ott


There's Something About Mary (1998) Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, Lee Evans, Chris Elliott, Lin Shaye, Jeffrey Tambor, Markie Post, Keith David, W. Earl Brown, Jonathan Richman, Harland Williams, Brett Favre. Screenplay, Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, story by Decter, Strauss. Directed by Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly. 118 minutes Rated R, 3 stars (out of five stars)

Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com/film/ Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott

"There's Something About Mary" is gross and offensive. It's poorly paced, often sluggish and about a half hour too long. A lot of the comedy bits fall flat and the ones that do work depend on shock value, mining cheap laughs from animal abuse, bodily fluids, pratfalls, humiliation and injury, while mocking physically and mentally handicapped people along with the elderly. Disgusting and utterly juvenile, "There's Something About Mary" is also the funniest film I've seen in a very long time. So sue me.

Created by the Farrelly brothers, the "visionaries" who gave the world "Dumb and Dumber" and "Kingpin," "There's Something About Mary" is the kind of no-holds-barred comedy reminiscent of "Blazing Saddles," "Animal House" and "Airplane." It's not really in the same league, though. The humor in those films was consistent, while "There's Something About Mary" only hits the high marks occasionally, with a lot of dead spots in- between. Oh, but when it works, this puppy is absolutely hilarious.

The story begins in 1985, when Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller), a dorky high- school student, bonds with the radiant Mary Jenson (Cameron Diaz) when he attempts to rescue her retarded brother Warren (W. Earl Brown) from a bully. Mary asks Ted to the prom and everything's coming up roses for the love-struck doofus until that fateful prom night when disaster hits, courtesy of a nightmarish escalating series of blunders, culminating in a zipper accident of historic proportions.

Cut to 13 years later, when Ted takes the suggestion of his friend Dom (Chris Elliott) and hires private eye Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to find out where Mary is living. The sleazy detective locates Mary in Miami and promptly falls for her. After feeding Ted bogus info to dissuade him from pursuing his lost love, Pat uses eavesdropping devices to learn what Mary wants in a man, then attempts to become that guy. Meanwhile, Ted learns the truth and heads south to try and pick up where he left off before that awful night with the zipper.

That's a lot of plot for a comedy and "There's Something About Mary" gets sluggish while trying to juggle all of its subplots and characters. Speaking of characters, the Farrelly boys aren't exactly famous for well drawn ones, and the film spends too much time getting up close and personal with some pretty sketchy people.

When the Farrellys wrench themselves away from the romantic contrivances and focus on the big jokes, "There's Something About Mary" kicks into high gear. The film contains a generous number of elaborate low-humor set pieces that pay off wonderfully, because of the brothers' willingness to take things way, way, way over the top. They set up a tasteless gag, then carry it light years further than most comic filmmakers would dare.

The zipper scene, for example, succeeds precisely because of overkill. Instead of settling for one painful laugh when poor Ted gets his package lodged in those cruel metal teeth, they keep pushing the envelope. Mary's father comes to help, humiliating the boy with his horrified double-take. Then he calls in Mom for a look-see, as the boy tries desperately to crawl behind the wallpaper. Then the police and firefighters arrive. Just when you think it's impossible to carry the gruesome joke any farther, they do, by giving us an explicit look at Ted's mangled genitals. Oh, the humanity!

If you think that's disgusting, skip this movie, because the Farrellys are just getting warmed up. There's also the drugged dog scene, the gay rest stop scene, the fish hook scene, the leather-skinned old woman's bare breast scene, and an extremely gross, incredibly funny masturbation bit that delivers one of the film's most side-splitting laughs, thanks to Mary's blissfully cheerful ignorance of the ickiness around her.

All the gags don't work, of course. The Farrellys have a fixation with facial blemishes and the zit and hives visuals aren't particularly funny. Most of the jokes mocking Mary's retarded brother Warren fall flat. The audience at the screening I attended were clearly resistant to the whole notion of making fun of the disabled. When the film was laughing with Warren, they the audience joined in. When it laughed at him, they didn't. As the proud father of a retarded son, that was reassuring.

Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller anchor the film nicely, although Diaz's Mary is at times a tad too gullible, even for this sort of comedy. Matt Dillon is adequate, while Chris Elliott delivers a creepy variant on his standard overconfident goon persona. The film is nicely framed by legendary quirk-folk singer Jonathan Richman, singing a number of inanely catchy tunes as the film's wandering troubadour.

If anything in this review offended you, skip "There's Something About Mary." Otherwise, get ready for some big laughs from a deeply flawed, but very funny over-the-top piece of comic anarchy. Either way, you have been warned.

© 1998 Ed Johnson-Ott

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