There's Something About Mary
20th Century Fox, 1998
Directed by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

$$$

A guy follows his heart and tries to track down his high school sweetheart from a decade past. Sounds like the premise for a sweet, inoffensive romantic comedy. But thankfully, the directors of Kingpin and Dumb & Dumber are behind the camera to give the idea the darkly funny, '90s stalker-twist it deserves.

In There's Something About Mary, Ben Stiller plays Ted, the loser in question who's still carrying a torch for his teenage crush, Mary. In asking him to the prom, Mary became probably the only beautiful woman who ever showed a glimmer of interest in Ted. She won his undying adoration, offering him his one and only promise of escape from Loserdom. That's why, all the years later, Ted still thinks there's something about that girl.

And Ted still regrets the day it all went wrong -- in a prom night mishap that is destined to be one of the most talked-about scenes in film history. (Put it this way -- it does for zippers what Pulp Fiction did for syringes.) After that, Mary moved across the country, never to be seen again. The whole predicament has landed poor Ted in therapy.

But in Ted's defense, Mary is played by the delicious Cameron Diaz. She's beautiful, brilliant and she likes football. In other words, she's every guy's perfect woman. So, we can't blame Ted when he agrees to a friend's suggestion and hires a sleazy investigator (Matt Dillon) to find his lost love. But it's only a matter of time before that investigator gets one look at Mary and falls for her himself.

That sets the plot in motion, but this chronicle of a loser's quest isn't what audiences are likely to remember. What they will return again and again for is the humor. The Farrelly brothers (Peter and Bobby) don't just push the envelope, they tear it wide open. Recognizing that Political Correctness has made the envelope a lot smaller than it used to be, the Farrelly's don't have to do much original to shock us, they simply do what hasn't been done in a long time.

The humor doesn't stop at making fun of stalkers; their targets also include serial killers, the mentally challenged and even the physically handicapped. You'll know it's wrong, but you'll laugh anyway. Meanwhile, the Farrelly's also delight your inner child with some of the sickest bathroom comedy you'll ever see (think: disgusting hair gel substitutes). By driving a proverbial tank through the brick wall of respectability, the filmmakers create one of the most cathartic experiences you're ever likely to have at a theater. They allow the mature viewer to laugh like a ten year-old. It's pure joy.

Copyright 1998