THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Count the funny one-liners. That's the measure of most good
comedies today.
The Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter, who brought us DUMB &
DUMBER and KINGPIN, take an entirely different approach. Relying on
funny plots, as opposed to single lines, and on great physical comedy,
they manage in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY to produce a movie that
should come with two warnings. One, people may laugh so hard, as our
audience did, that they are in danger of rupturing internal organs.
(At our advanced screening, I heard louder laughter than at any movie
since PRIVATE PARTS. The laughs sounded like small explosions.) Two,
the Farrelly brothers are proudly ignorant as to what might constitute
inappropriate humor.
The story starts in a high school in Rhode Island, where the nerdy
Ted is trying to find a date for the prom. Thus far all he has been
able to get is one homely girl who says that she might go with him if
things don't work out with her intended date. Through an incredible
stroke of luck, the most beautiful girl in the school, the lithe and
dazzling Mary Jenson, asks him to be her date. Mary, everyone agrees,
is "a fox."
With enough metal in his mouth to set off airport metal detectors,
Ben Stiller from FLIRTING WITH DISASTER plays the unconfident Ted. In
one of her best performances yet, Cameron Diaz plays Mary with grace
and charm. Comedy comes so naturally to Diaz that she seems to be
barely acting. Her performance is as captivating as it is funny.
Ted and Mary's date is not to be. Dressed in a tan and taupe tux,
Ted goes to the bathroom at Mary's house and has that problem of which
all men live in fear. He gets it caught in his zipper. It is in this
long sequence that the movie first demonstrates its comedic brilliance.
Most movies would dissolve into bad slapstick if they attempted to stay
with this one idea for so long. The Farrelly's, helped by the
extremely expressive Stiller, keep the joke going for longer that you
would ever image, and they make it much more explicit than you might
guess. The result is sure to have at least half of the audience
grimacing in pain as everyone laughs so hard their sides may split.
(The stuck-in-the-zipper routine isn't even close to the movie's
most outlandish part. Much later there is a masturbation sequence so
funny that it almost brings the house down with laugher.)
The movie skips ahead 13 years with the now reasonably handsome
Ted wanting to find the girl of his dreams. Although he lost touch
with Mary after high school, he has never gotten her out of his mind so
he employees a slime ball investigator named Pat Healy to locate her
down in Florida. Matt Dillon plays the offensive detective with a
small brain and a large libido.
Since Healy falls for Mary, he tells Ted that Mary has bloated up
to whale-sized proportions with four kids from three men and no rock on
her finger. Plus she's in a wheelchair, etc.
Healy starts eavesdropping on Mary with electronic surveillance
equipment. Whatever he overhears her saying she wants, he does - even
getting himself some oversized teeth caps when he misunderstands her.
Mary's next-door neighbor, Magda (Lin Shaye), has been in the
Florida sun so long that her skin has turned to leather. Her breasts
are even worse.
This just gives you a flavor of this uproarious movie. I'll let
you experience the rest yourselves. And I haven't even mentioned the
flaming dog or a hundred other hilarious parts of this high-energy
delight. Many of the scenes have unprintable descriptions anyway.
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY runs 1:55. It is rated R for strong
comic sexual content and language and would be fine for most teenagers.
Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: There's Something About Mary is a fresh and funny comedy brought to us by the Farrelly brothers, the same guys who gave us the hilarious dumb and dumber. I laughed throughout just about the whole movie with the great one liners and raunchy comedy. Ben Stiller gives one of his best performances here as Ted Stroehman, a geeky teenager who falls for the most beautiful girl in school, and amazingly she likes him too. After a hilarious incident on prom night, she moves away and he tries to track her down years later. Matt Dillon plays the sleazy private eye who tracks her down and ends up falling for her, along with a bunch of other guys too! There are some real funny scenes in this movie particulary the scenes with the little dog, and the hair gel scene. The plot itself is nothing ingenious, but the comedy is outrageous. If you want a movie that will make you laugh and have a good time, then this is definately worth seeing.
I give There's Something About Mary 4 out of 5 stars
Review written August 11, 1999
