The film centres around Ted, played by Ben Stiller, a man who wants to get back in touch with Mary, the love of his life. He hires a private detective, who ends up falling for Mary himself. Oh, and also there's an Englishman who's chasing Mary too. Actually, it'd be quicker to list who isn't in love with Mary in this film. The plot is actually okay. It opens itself up to all sorts of comedic situations, and it's actually quite engaging. I love how progressively complex the plot gets, starting as a simple romantic comedy about a man chasing a woman, and finishing as a massively tangled and absolutely mental plot that goes in a completely different direction than you maybe expected it to. It's a fun story, with a good few twists and turns along the way that crank up the madness. And yes, this film is crazy. Unlike Raising Arizona or Blazing Saddles though, There's Something About Mary is able to keep focused on whats going on, and rarely gets carried away with it's madness. That's pretty admirable actually. It has it's own flaws, but for the most part, it keeps on track of it's madness.
One thing I'm not mad about in the film though is Ben Stiller's character Ted. He's your typical nice guy, and quite frankly he's a little boring. Nothing against Ben Stiller, but he's just kind of dull in this film. He doesn't have any massive defining traits apart from the fact that he loves Mary. That's kind of it. Yeah, his personality is... protagonist. It's even worse when you place him next to some of the more colurful and fun characters in the movie. My favourite is Matt Dillon's character, Healy. This guy is an asshole, plain and simple. I love how depraved this guy is, and how he gradually stoops lower and lower as the film progresses. He's a lovable asshole, one who gets worse and worse as the film progresses. And it's awesome. This guy is hilarious with how much of an absolute prat he is, and I love every second of it. I also love Lee Evans (one of my favourite stand ups) as Tucker, a Englishman who walks with crutches. Without giving too much away about his character, he also turns out to be an absolute scumbag. And I love it. He's the highlight in this film for me for sure. The scene when he tries to pick up his keys always gets me.
It's scenes like that that make me love this movie, and I think it's mostly hilarious. Mostly. Yeah, while this movie is great, funny and charming for the most part, it falls flat in other areas. For one, it often feels like they're trying way too hard with some of the jokes. Sometimes the comedy even feels a little forced in places. It's not a big thing in the film, but some jokes don't really hit as well as the writers probably wanted them to. Another problem, and this is the big one, is that sometimes the writers go to out of their way to shock the audience. Hey, the first sentence just became relevant! But yeah, one or two scenes (and you know which ones I'm talking about) really weren't needed at all, and only exist to shock. Which is when the shock and gross-out humour fails. It actually does work here for the most part, especially, when highlighting how depraved some of Mary's suitors are. In those cases, the shock humour works because these are shallow, petty people prepared to do these awful things to achieve their goals. When the writers focus on that, it's often hilarious. But it's when these kind of jokes just appear for no other reason but to shock that the movie feels puerile and stupid. For the most part they handle it well though, and use the shock humour in a way that not only feels needed, but gets laughs too.
And that's why it feels unbalanced. See, There's Something About Mary really suffers from the flaws I mentioned earlier. Some jokes feel forced, the main protagonist is boring as all hell, and the shock humour sometimes feels unnecessary, but despite these issues, I really enjoy this film. All my problems aside, it's hilarious when the jokes hit, the other characters are wonderful, the set-pieces are really creative, and the film also has this really bizarre, messed up heart to it. It's a romantic comedy for people who don't like romantic comedies. And even those who do might be surprised with how much it sticks to the genre despite being so low brow and stupid (in a good way). It's a breath of fresh air for the genre, one that's refreshingly stupid and immature, but never loses it's charm. When it misses, good God does it miss, but when it hits, you're in for a offbeat, feelgood and honestly very funny watch, one that's far form art, but it never pretends to be. It's a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend it, if you can look past it's flaws.
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