We all had a 'Mary' in our life ...

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2013)

They're beautiful, they embrace life with an extraordinary optimism and wherever they come, it's like sunshine blossoming all over the place. The world is full of girls like Mary, pretty to both eyes and hearts, whose beauty never nourished a snobbish attitude that we'd have forgiven anyway. Cameron Diaz is the titular Mary, and Mary is not just a name, but a concept.
We all had a Mary, a 'prettiest girl' in school, one that melted the hearts of studs and athletes as much as geeks and losers; all boys devoted their admiration for Mary like embracing an inaccessible dream. I was in love with a 'Mary' during almost ten years. Needless to say that it wasn't reciprocal, but I never cared, if she smiled at me, she'd had made my day, if she talked, I would spend one minute thinking of the best response, and if we had a date , well, only my dreams involved me as the 'lucky one'."There's Something About Mary" is a cinematic tribute to this eternal lovely figure that either enchanted or indirectly ruined our memories.
And Cameron Diaz, with her blonde hair, communicative smile and eternally positive attitude, embodied the most fascinating traits of these dream-like creatures. Her performance is perfect because she is genuinely sweet, tender and funny beyond her sexiness. She's such a good person, she even asks Ted (Ben Stiller) to be her cavalier for the prom. Granted movies have their shares of geeky escapism, but Cameron Diaz makes believable that such a girl would not feel indifferent to an awkward braces-wearing schmuck like Stiller. It's believable because these girls are so often labeled as inaccessible by average guys that no one dares to seduce them, which makes them inexperienced enough to fall for the one who tries, inviting the other adulators to come off their holes.
Directed by the Farrelly Brothers, "Mary" is about a confrontation between men who have all in common, their obsessive fascination for 'Mary'. Since, it's not a game with a win-win situation, it's up to the most sincere, the most clever or the most malicious to win her heart. And this simple premise leads to one of the funniest comedies of the 90's, a laugh riot from beginning to end. For the trivia, the film made the last Gene Siskel's Top 10 before his death in 1999, it was in the Top 10 highest-grossing movies of 1998, and holds a honorable 27th spot in the American Film Institute Top 100 comedies as the most recent film to make it in the list.
And there's a reason why the film meets with such popular acclaim: it IS funny to a level of slapstick that could have only been possible in a spoof movie, which "Mary" is not, but it's beyond labels and no gag is taken for granted, they're all pushed to their extreme limits. And for its risk-taking approach to humor, the film succeeds. Take the unfortunate 'zipper' accident that ruins what could have been Ted's life highlight (and turned out to be the whole opposite), showing the reactions of all the community was already hilarious, but the film doesn't hesitate to give us an 'explicit' idea about the state of Ted's genitals. We never know what we see exactly, but we know it might hurt like hell.
After the incident, Mary moves to Florida and Ted loses touch with her, for several years and determined to find out her new whereabouts, in order to exorcise his unfulfilled obsessions, he hires Matt Dillon as a private-eye. Even more brilliant than his casting, the idea of putting this villainous old-fashioned mustache in Dillon is a stroke of genius, because only a naive guy like Ted could have trusted him. But that's what makes Stiller one of the most defining losers of the 90's, what his subsequent series of misadventures never contradict. I won't spoil all the gags, but some have already penetrated Pop-Culture forever they deserve more than a mention.
Yes, I'm speaking of the infamous hair gel. Before his date with Mary, Ted's friend, played by Chris Elliot, advises him to pleasure himself, because "the most honest moment in a man's life are the few minutes after he's blown his load - now that is a medical fact". Kudos to the writers for such a line full of wisdom because it is true! The whole 'blowing' process is a nice gag, the mysterious disappearance of the seminal liquid, is intriguing and funny, but the final punch line is enough to give the film its ticket in the ¨Pantheon of great comedies", much more for Mary's reaction which, as silly as it is, keeps her in character, yes, she's still the well-meaning and innocent Mary.
And that's the film's secret beyond its crude and raunchy humor, forgive me the cliché; it has a heart, incarnated by Mary. She's the Pandora box or Helen of Troy, inspiring her little fan-club the most deceitful ways to win her. Stiller, Dillon and Elliot are perfect, the other cast features a disabled close friend who's not totally blameless, a roommate named Magda who seemed to have spent her whole life in a UV oven, and naturally, there's no comedy without a scene-stealing animal, the dog in "Mary" reduces the one from "Mask" to the level of "Benji". There's also a weird guitarist playing the 'Greek chorus' figure, and whose final shot will be a double satisfaction for viewers, the second being the nice twist on the happy-ending, perhaps the only forgivable bit of unoriginality.
But it's still funny, warm, touching in fact, there's something about "Mary" that touches your heart, because it's still about two people learning to love each other without lying or stalking. It's all about honest love. What was wrong with these guys? They idolized Mary, and maintained their passion on a love-at-first-sight level, while it takes more to win a girl's heart, especially a girl like Mary ...