There’s Something About Mary
Before movie comedy dropped off the precifice in the 21st century, there was one film left to be made that redefined the term “instant classic” before even its own makers drudged into a series of mostly unfunny dreck. Bobby and Peter Farrelly had already established a style that combined gross out humor with political incorrectness but yet always kept a firm, beating heart at the center of all their work. When their previous film, the now firmly established classic Kingpin had been considered a box office failure at the time upon its initial release, The Farrellys concluded that they probably had just one more big movie still left in them and decided to go all out with what they thought would be the blackest, grossest, most politically incorrect thing that they could come up with, all while being under the guise of a romantic comedy (usually the weakest comedies of all), and even then using as the major subtext of the film what was at the time the widely talked about serious issue (and still is today) of stalking, that of a female receiving unwanted attention from an obsessive male who just will not leave her alone while seemingly having nothing better to do with his own time than follow the poor girl around and make her life a living hell, amping it up to the max with its story of a nice young man (who still retains a few stalkerish qualities in his own right) having to make his way through a literal bevy of perverts, losers, and con artists in order to convince the girl he loves that he would be the best one for her to hilariously successful effect. Now while audiences who saw it in 1998 laughed uproariously at the sight of such things as the girl unknowingly using male ejaculate as hair gel and a grown man having an extended fight scene with a small dog loaded up with speed, these kind of things are merely a side note to the various obsessed characters all competing for the attention of a girl whom they all want to be with because, well, they all look at her as being the perfect girl (unfortunately for her). It certainly helps that the cast on hand here is literally comprised of some of the best comic talent that the late 90s had to offer all the way down to some of the bit parts and cameo roles. When it comes to the girl herself (“Mary”), we get Cameron Diaz, still in the throes of the early “goddess” stage of her career, bringing her good looks to the part and playing the “perfect” type of girl in a quintessentially 90s sense, being portayed as sweet and caring towards the underdog types, giving of her time when it comes to the less fortunate (from caring for a mentally disabled brother whom she adores), having herself all set up in a high paying dream job as an orthopedic surgeon, and also curiously displaying just a little hint of shallowness as well, such as having her favorite movie be the notoriously overrated “romance” Harold And Maude and openly declaring her desire to just be with a “regular guy”, a wish that only draws more of the creeps and weirdos out of the woodwork to try and court her. The story begins with her in high school and asking the shy, dorky Ted (Ben Stiller) on a date to the prom mostly because her known boyfriend was said to be getting weird on her. Stiller of course, might be the only major comedy name still carrying a torch today to retain elements of quality in his own work, but this relatively early role for him really did put him on the map. When going to pick Mary up for the prom, he runs headlong into Mary’s fearsome (black) stepdad (Keith David, effortlessly stealing the movie with only about 10 minutes of screen time) along with her sweet natured mom (Markie Post, a welcome sight after her charming run on Night Court) and winds up suffering a mishap so outrageous and gruesome that it almost seems wrong to speak of it out loud. Needless to say, the prom date goes south, and 13 years later Stiller is still in therapy over it (with a disinterested shrink who regularly sneaks out during their sessions) until his best friend (Chris Elliot) suggests hiring a private detective to look her up and find out some info. This introduces us to Matt Dillon as Pat Healy, a classic comedy character in the sense of being amongst the most disreputable, dishonest, simply outright boorish sons of bitches in cinema history while still being completely hysterical in the sly execution of the role by Dillon himself (always underrated his whole career), who flies down to Miami, hooks up with his old compadre down there (Jeffrey Tambor) and proceeds to stalk Mary as part of his job, ultimately deciding that he wants her all for himself, first by lying to Stiller about her being fat now with four kids, then using information gleaned from listening in to her wiretapped private conversations with her friends to clumsily turning himself into her idea of a “perfect man”, pretending to be into things that she enjoys like architecture, golf, and spending time with her brother and other “retards” that he claims is his true pleasure to work with. When Stiller discovers the hoax, he heads down there to make his own overtures towards Mary, but not before dealing with a psychotic hitchhiker played by Harland Williams and an overzealous cop played by little known yet legendary movie hardass Richard Tyson. But wait! There’s still more creepers for both Stiller and Dillon to deal with, including a twerpy pizza delivery boy masquerading as a brave, noble yet disabled architect (complete with faux British accent and crutches) played by Lee Evans in a performance that pretty much steals the movie when his fake, refined personality is blown away to reveal his actual dipshit, lowlife, dumbass loser kid true self, one who shows such a level of dedicated obsession towards his object of desire that it actually gives the other characters (and no doubt real life stalkers) a certain amount of pause. There’s also the (actually dangerous) old high school boyfriend still hanging around as well as an ex who happens to be a real life athlete of legendary proportions, and the pot looks to be stirred pretty well for all of these elements to come to a head. And admirably, amidst the nastier dynamics of the story (Mary’s roommate played by Lin Shaye is a human barfbag in and of herself), The Farrellys understand well enough that with such a troupe of misfits hanging around their film that a good strong dose of pathos to go along with each of them obviously helps make their existence that much more palatable to the viewer, as certainly comedy greats going all the way back to Chaplin were smart enough to realize the value of such a character element as pathos. And while no bets will be won for the viewer who correctly guesses who does indeed “win” Mary’s heart in the end (though the message of having the most appealing suitor being the one most willing to walk away from the whole mess really is a potent one), the way towards getting there is really what matters, such as whenever any character gets their ass handed to them by Mary’s retarded brother (W. Earl Brown, deftly pulling off the character by being all at once dead on accurate, offensively inappropriate, and flat out hilarious), or the various confrontations and / or alliances between any number of characters in order to achieve their “quest”, or the out of left field pop up appearances of a two man band to either serenade us or introduce the next portion of the story, with Diaz most of all being a very good sport and handling the whole thing with an aplomb that many less likable actresses and Hollywood diva sorts could NEVER pull off (Angelina Jolie for example could never have loosened up enough for this sort of role). As for The Farrellys, they got their smash hit that allowed them to keep working (for better or worse) and movie comedy itself got pretty much the very last of their “instant classics”, but what a classic it is, a romantic comedy that has none of the things a romantic comedy is supposed to have, a gross out yukfest that doesn’t quite manage to cover its own heart in puke, and one of the last times that political incorrectness was successfully and acceptably put to good use in what is easily one of the single funniest movies ever made…
10/10