Brilliant Slapstick

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 1998)

There's Something About Mary is a great movie, continuing a long and glorious tradition of good and enjoyable Slapstick. Critics will not use phrases like A Witty Satire or A Comic View on Human Nature. But if you want 1.5 hours of fun and humor, and if you can't remember the last time you rolled on the floor inside a cinema, then this is the film for you.
The film has a good balance of intelligent humor and Jerry Lewis - Style comedy. The cast is great, and even an actor like Matt Delon, and I use the word actor in a very loose way, manages to give a good performance. Cameron Diaz is great as usual, and Ben Stiller is doing a good job.
(If you didn't see the movie yet, please skip to the next paragraph because I'll refer to some scenes now.) When Pat Healy asks Mary for a change because he is stuck with small coins from Nepal, or when he accidently drops some blueprints of a children hospital, you get a wide grin on your face and say Jesus, what a son of a bitch'... And that's a sign of good filmmaking. And when you discover that Tucker is also an imposter, and that the great dialoge they made in the Architecture Exhibition ("Santiago, Chile? Sure, twice last year...") was all a fake, you start to appreciate the intelligence of the script.
But the real fun is the slapstick part. The dog scenes ("Oh, so you are the little dog making all that noise...") are sure to make you roll on the floor, unless you went to the cinema wearing a jacket and a tie.
In short - a great comedy, and a good return on your ticket money.
Uri Rubner, nice27m@hotmail.com