The film There’s Something About Mary made its debut July 17, 1998. The comedy was directed by the Farrelly Brothers, Peter and Robert. Before There’s Something About Mary the team was responsible for the comedies Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin. The stars of the film were Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller and Matt Dillon. The film dealt with the same comedic style that the Farrelly Brothers were known for which included slapstick type humor. The production budget for the film There’s Something About Mary was Twenty-three million dollars. During its opening weekend the film grossed thirteen million dollars (Mojo, 2016).The film also has a rating from IMDb of a 7.1 out of 10 (IMDb, 2016).
The story centers around the character Ted Stroehmann played by Stiller who was a high school geek but lands the girl of his dreams, Mary Jensen played by Cameron Diaz as his date for the prom. Ted winds up having an accident with his zipper and his private parts and ends up not being able to go on the date. He loses contact with Mary and this sets the stage for the rest of the movie. Ted hires private investigator Pat Healy played by Matt Dillon to find Mary. Healy eventually finds Mary in Florida where she has become a surgeon. Healy falls in love with Mary and gives false reports to Ted hoping it will discourage him from pursuing Mary (Farrelly & Farrelly, 1998). The entire movie centers around different men falling for Mary but in the end Mary picks Ted as the one she will be with.
Reviews for the film were mixed. In a review done by Roger Ebert , Ebert describes the movie as that it “flies in the face of manners, values, political correctness and decorum” (Ebert, 1998).Overall Ebert liked the movie because it made him laugh because other comedies released around the same time did not. Other reviews had the same take on the film as Roger Ebert. While the film had parts that made reviewers laugh some still felt that there were portions of the public that would be uncomfortable with this kind of humor (Tatarra, 1998).Overall the general public liked the film even though some of the content of the film was not meant for younger viewers because of the type of comedy that was used in the film. The Farrelly Brothers had pushed the envelope with their style of comedy in their previous films and kept pushing with this film. The film also helped the Farrelly Brothers to establish a brand of humor that has kept them making more films with this type of slapstick humor.
The film has become very well-known and usually when the name of the film is brought up most people will automatically know what the film is. This film could be looked at in a way of paving the way for the Farrelly Brothers type of humor used in the film to becoming common place in other films that have come along since then. While there are many people who do not care for this type of humor there are others that do and the monies grossed by the film There’s Something About Mary show this. To date the total lifetime gross of the film in all its forms VHS, DVD Blue ray and other forms has been domestically $176,484,651 and its foreign gross has been $193,400,000 (Mojo, 2016). Today humor that was used in this film at that time is almost common place. While there were people that were shocked at the humor that was used in the film, over time people have become more desensitized to the language and situations that were presented in the film There’s Something About Mary. Eighteen years after the film’s release people are still enjoying the comedy that was presented in the film.
References
Ebert, R. (1998, July 15). There's Something About Mary. Retrieved from Roger Ebert .com: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/theres-something-about-mary-1998
Farrelly, R., & Farrelly, P. (Directors). (1998). There's Something About Mary [Motion Picture].
IMDb. (2016). There's Something About Mary. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105151/
Mojo. (2016). There's Something About Mary. Retrieved from Box Office Mojo: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=somethingaboutmary.htm
Tatarra, P. (1998, July 16). Review: 'There's Something About Mary,' and it's disgusting. Retrieved from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9807/16/review.something.about.mary/
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