There's Something About Mary

The Farrelly Brothers are without a doubt the sickest, most juvenile people working in Hollywood. And they just put together one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. But I should qualify that. This isn't A Fish Called Wanda humor, full of clever philosophy references and stuttering sequences.Nearly every gag is a sight gag, and some of them are unforgettably nasty.You've been warned: If you prefer Woody Allen's humor to the Marx Brothers,stay far away from this one. If you straddle the line between the two, this movie may surprise you. It certainly surprised me.

The movie first starts in the early '80s, a rather popular subject of late (Grosse Pointe Blank, Romy and Michelle, The Wedding Singer), with a very geeky boy Ted (Ben Stiller, showing more and more talent with each movie),who's madly in love with new girl in town Mary (Cameron Diaz, whose character just might be the most perfect woman on the planet). Ted miraculously scores a date to the prom with her and while he's at her house, disaster strikes. I'm sure you've seen the Zipper Shot in the ads. Typical, yes. But they turn it on its ear and make it a step above all other Zipper Shots.

Cut to the present, where Ted is still in love with Mary. He's dying to know where she is and how she's doing. His friend Don (Chris Elliott, for once playing a reasonably normal guy) suggests this insurance claims investigator Pat (a really sleazy Matt Dillon), who finds her single, rich and beautiful in Miami, and proceeds to fall madly in love with her as well. (It's kinda hard for a guy not to like Mary. She drinks domestic beer, she plays golf, she watches SportsCenter, and she looks like Cameron Diaz) By putting Mary undersurveillance, he starts to find out what kind of guy she's looking for, and pops up as her model date. Mary's dear friend Tucker (Lee Evans, flexing more of his tremendous physical comedic muscle than he did in Mouse Hunt), however, suspects Pat may not be exactly what he seems.

From here the story takes a lot of turns and twists that I will not get into here. I did not expect this movie to have as much of a plot as it did, and that was a welcome surprise. I don't usually like scenes that use animals for the big joke, but there are several scenes involving Mary's next door neighbor's dog that were hysterical. You've seen the shot in the ads with the dog in the full body cast. That doesn't even touch what happens in the movie.I saw this movie at a packed matinee show, and there were MANY times where I missed a good 30 or 45 seconds of dialogue because the audience was still laughing. The best part was, despite the buckets of physical humor, there were no fart jokes that I can think of. So it was low brow without scraping the bottom of the barrel.

This movie was beautifully cast, and that helped make it more believable and enjoyable. Ben Stiller may be our generation's Albert Brooks. He has both the smarts and the physical skills to be a comedy god. And the movie could also be viewed as a giant ad for Cameron Diaz For Goddess of the Universe. It's going to be hard for men to walk out of this movie without being in love with Mary as well. Matt Dillon showed some guts to take on a role that isn't him as Pretty Boy With a Dark Side. He didn't pull it off as well as Stiller, but he wasn't really supposed to. Lee Evans is one to watch. The UK's Jim Carrey, he has almost a vaudevillian way to his physical abilities. And there were loads of great bit parts in this, including Khandi Alexander, ex of NewsRadio, Marki Post as Mary's mother, and I'm pretty sure the hitchhiker Ben picked up was Harland Williams. Plus there is a great cameo at the end, and a good joke attached to it.

Who'd a thunk that the Farrelly Brothers. former Seinfeld writers who turned up the sicko factor when they started doing movies (Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin) would have made a movie with heart and very honest sweetness to it. But they did. I never saw Kingpin, mainly because I was not at all pleased with Dumb and Dumber. I didn't even want to see this movie, either. But the reviews were good, the cast is great, and they put the Propellerheads in the soundtrack. :-) So I figured it couldn't be that bad. And it wasn't, at all. A guy behind me on the way out of the theater was complaining about the movie, describing the scene and then saying to his friends "That isn't witty. There was no wit to that movie at all!" Well duh, genius, you just saw a Farrelly Brothers movie. As long as you know what you're getting yourself into, you won't be disappointed. If you're easily offended, however, steer clear.