Movie Review: There's Something About Mary (1998)

There's Something About this girl....but it's hard to place what it is. Could it be her looks, her kindness and inner being, or is it just the fact that she makes men feel good about themselves? The third one wins. There's Something About Mary is a 1998 movie directed once again by the Farelly Brothers which stars Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, and Cameron Diaz. The movie follows Ben Stiller's role as he hires a private eye (Dillon) to track down the girl he loved and still loves in high school (Diaz) Now going into this movie I had very good expectations. The Farelly Brothers are a great comedic duo (after all they brought us both Dumb and Dumber pictures) and given such an intriguing plot I thought there was no way to possibly go wrong. I was right because this movie was great. There's Something About Mary is a funny, relatable, and even gently (not in the face) heartwarming which really has an interesting message about what it is relationship and gender casts between females and males. One of the things this movie does greatly is displays how gross-out humor can actually be used in a good way. The seen with Mary's hair is iconic and that is toilet humor that is actually funny and works. It's so smart, that it can afford to be dumb. I won't spoil what the message is at the end of this movie, but I really believe that the conclusion about why five guys pine after Mary is true. Yet again, the one primal flaw with this film is the humor that is used which goes too far. Throughout the entirety of There's Something About Mary, mentally disabled people are mocked. While it can solicit a few laughs, I found some of the humor to be extremely insensitive to that community. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother you. I didn't bother me, but that did not stop me from taking note of it. I'll also share with you that the movie does a great job of playing out stereotypes (in a more clever way in other scenes) Overall, There's Something About Mary was a great movie, very funny, and while it did really try to "push" the boundaries of what a movie can do and how it remains politically correct, that doesn't deter from the mass quality of the film. Three stars.