2017 Blind Spot Series: There's Something About Mary

The main purpose of the Blind Spot Challenge, as thrown down by Ryan at The Matinee every year, is for us bloggers to watch movies we haven't seen that are "significant." I take that to mean movies that I probably should've seen given my viewing habits and tastes. Along with action and slasher flicks, I grew up on raunchy comedies. Somehow, I missed this one...

Why did I pick it? As I've already mentioned, I grew up on these kinds of comedies. When it was released in 1998 There's Something About Mary was a huge box office hit, grossing $369 million against a budget of a mere $23 million. In light of its success, it became hailed as a comedy classic. It's coronation as such came when the American Film Institute placed it 27th on their list "100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies." I had already seen and was a huge fan of the bowling comedy, Kingpin, the previous movie by directors The Farrelly Brothers. In the years since I've enjoyed a number of their other films. A few years ago, I purchased it from a used book store with the express purpose of viewing it within that week. Instead, it held down its alphabetically assigned spot in the comedy section of my collection. Occasionally, I picked it up and thought about watching it only to put it back in favor of something else. So here we have a movie custom made for my tastes, particularly at the time it came out, which was before my super-cinephile days, I've owned it for several years and I still hadn't seen it. I figured it was time.

Going into the movie I really didn't know much about it despite its lofty status. I mean, I knew that Ben Stiller's character was hopelessly in love with Cameron Diaz's Mary. I had also seen the legendary masturbation/hair gel scene about a thousand times in clips. I also knew that NFL legend Brett Favre showed up playing himself at some point. That was fine by me since I like going into movies as cold as possible. For a nineteen year old movie hailed as a classic that most of my real life friends and family had seen I consider this little bit of knowledge going in cold. Once the movie started, the nuts and bolts of the thing come together quickly.

The story starts with Stiller's Ted in high school. The eponymous Mary takes a liking to him after he comes to the aid of her mentally challenged brother Warren (W. Earl Brown) who is being bullied. They decide to go to prom together. Thanks to some rather unfortunate events the date never happens. After high school, the two go their separate ways. Fast-forward thirteen years and we see that Ted has never gotten over Mary despite having never seen her again. He's in therapy about it. In fact, his whole life seems to be on hold. At the urging of his buddy Dom (Chris Elliott), Ted hires slimy private detective Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to find his beloved Mary. All sorts of hijinks and shenanigans ensue.

After watching tons of irreverent movies through the years, I was prepared for the barrage of bawdy jokes. This movie has a them in spades. Most of them work. Truthfully, most of them aren't all that different from the ones in other movies. What makes them funnier here is the execution of them. In most comedies, the jokes come so fast whether they hit or miss relies almost entirely on how we view what happens before the movie even starts. What we get is an endless procession of punchlines. Some are funny, some aren't. In There's Something About Mary the jokes are set up in a way that builds our anticipation of the punchline. Within that setup are other funny little things that keep the it from being tedious, but don't subtract from the overall joke. When we finally get that punchline we don't always just move on to the next joke. The Farrelly's often let a joke marinate in ways that somehow manage to feel true to life in spite of the ridiculousness of what just occurred. It's a winning formula the film rides all the way through its runtime.

The technique of taking its time to set things up and not just abandon it once you get to the traditional end also plays out in the storytelling. Most films with similar premises get their main lovebirds on the screen together as soon as possible. That's not the case, here. There's Something About Mary does have them together almost immediately, but once they separate it's quite some time before they get back together. In the interim, the plot is being built and characters are being developed. Every time we see Ted, his obsession for Mary is reinforced. We also come to understand Mary. In truth, she's probably the least realistic person in the film along with Lin Shaye's Magda. Mary is a highly romanticized version of the woman of our dreams. She's beautiful, single, plucky, a bit naive, and actively looking for a guy. It also doesn't help that she's apparently allergic to a bra. It's a bit of a shame because these are the only two women of consequence in the movie, but the film around them is good enough to make this work. The performances of the two ladies in question also helps. Diaz pulls off all the qualities of Mary and makes it easy to see that there is indeed something about her. Lin Shaye does the better work, though as Mary's older, over-tanned and horny friend. Shaye is mostly known for what she's done in countless horror movies, but again proves she's a very underrated comic performer.

On the male side of the ledger it's much more crowded, but there is some very strong work. Ben Stiller, as usual, plays Ben Stiller. However, this might be the best version of his persona. He comes across as a bit of a tortured guy bound to fail in his biggest moments. That said, we root for him. Shortcomings notwithstanding, he's the least creepy guy in the movie which is also a major plus. Lee Evans is very good as Tucker, another guy who is clearly obsessed with Mary. Some of his work is rather uncomfortable to watch because it practically begs us to laugh at his character's physical disabilities. Of course, this is a Farrelly Brothers staple. The protagonist Kingpin had a hook for a hand. Stuck on You features conjoined twins, Dumb and Dumber features, well, it's in the title. Here, it's Tucker. Though cringe-worthy some of the jokes surrounding him are, he's a vital part of the story and a wonderful counterpoint to the film's real star, Matt Dillon's Pat Healy. Despite growing up during Dillon's heyday, I haven't seen a ton of his work. Of what I have seen, this is clearly his best performance. He fully embodies the unscrupulous Healy, displays remarkable comic timing, and walks off with the whole film.

I did mention earlier that NFL legend Brett Favre appears. As an actor, he's a great quarterback. However, he also provides us with some interesting trivia. I don't usually do trivia here, and this is probably more interesting if you're an American football fan, but I'll go with it anyway. The deal is that the quarterback who was supposed to play that role was Steve Young, another NFL legend. Unfortunately for the Farrelly Brothers, Young is a devout Mormon. Once he got wind of what type of movie this was going to be he decided against doing it. Favre was brought in, but Young was still referenced. After Mary tells Magda about meeting Healy, Magda asks if he's good looking. "He's no Steve Young," Mary replied.

Whether it was Young or Favre doesn't really matter. In either case, it merely functions to have a guy who guys like me look up to and even having him smitten with Mary. The fact that Favre's performance is no better than his work in his commercials for Wrangler jeans is irrelevant. He doesn't deduct from the overall quality of the film. The same goes for most of the film's other problems. They get trumped by the surprisingly patient storytelling and joke telling. Both work magic to create some hilarious moments and a heartfelt tale. The last ten minutes gets a little too ambitious and it falls apart a bit in those final moments. The biggest issue is the Hitchcockian twist it spends the entire film building up to. When we finally get it, it's too over the top and not as funny as the everything else we've seen. This is hard to do in a movie where lots of moments are over the top. Actor Chris Elliott is at least partially to blame for this. His performance is the weak link among the cast, aside from Favre's. By this time, There's Something About Mary builds up more than enough goodwill for us to excuse this setback. We have still become absorbed in and had a blast watching it. The ending quickly fades away leaving behind some truly hilarious moments that stick with us.

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