great screwball romantic comedy

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2003)

Not having seen "There's Something About Mary" since its theatrical release, I sat down to watch the DVD version fearing that, as often happens in the second viewing of romantic/screwball comedies, it would not be as funny as I remembered and that I would be sadly disappointed. Happily, it was, and I wasn't. Although it lacks the satirical bite and philosophical reach of "Harold and Maude," the cult '70s romantic comedy to which "There's Something About Mary" traces its roots and pays repeated homage, this Farrelly brothers effort shares the earlier film's genre-bending spirit, shockingly iconoclastic images, and sharply written dialog - not to mention its sidesplitting hilarity.
At least a half dozen scenes in "There's Something About Mary" still rank among the funniest I've ever encountered on film and set me off once again into uncontrollable laugh convulsions, even minus the stimulus of a roaring theater audience around me. The list must naturally begin with the prom night "frank and beans" in the zipper scene. Even more than the outrageousness of the central physical source of humor, what makes the scene work so spectacularly well is its pacing and the facial reactions of the various characters who enter the bathroom to observe Ted's embarrassed agony. One thing I had forgotten about the scene (or didn't notice the first time around) was how much it owes to the classic Marx Brothers' "stateroom scene" in "A Night at the Opera." In fact, I was rather surprised while listening to the Farrelly brothers' alternate soundtrack commentary that they did not mention a Marx Brothers influence either specifically on this scene or on their brand of comedy in general.
The film's other humorous high-points (if that's the right word), certainly include the three dog sequences (Puffy in a sedative coma/Puffy on speed/Puffy in a body cast), the hitchhiker sequence and its follow-up interrogation at police headquarters, the infamous hair gel scene, and old flame Woogie's sexual assault on Mary's closet. That these are not the sorts of subjects we feel entirely comfortable having jokes based on is precisely what makes them work so well - when they work for us at all that is. Operating on the edges of moral and social taboo the Farrelly brothers deliberately risk offense and invite charges of bad taste. Not surprisingly, therefore, almost everyone will respond to some attempts at humor in "There's Something About Mary" with more discomfort than elation. In addition, some comic bits in the film don't work simply because they were ill conceived or poorly acted, the leaden entry and presence of Brett Favre in the film's final scene being one such instance in my view and the whole "pizza delivery boy" character being another.
For the most part, though, things click together in "There's Something About Mary" with a magical charm that few American screwball comedies have ever achieved. Much of the credit for that success must be attributed not only to the clever script but to the wonderful casting/acting of Ben Stiller as the lovable schlemiel Ted Stroehmann, Cameron Diaz as the luminous dream girl Mary, and Matt Dillon as the goofy gumshoe and romantic rival Pat Healy. Chris Elliott as the stressed out fetishist/stalker Woogie and Lin Shave as Mary's Maude-like neighbor Magda also add greatly to the film's comic chemistry - as does the film's musical score, which cleverly uses the Mel Brooks device of giving "background" musicians an on screen presence and concludes with a full cast encore lip-syncing to "Build Me Up Buttercup" as the end credits roll and outtakes flash by. A unique comic gem.