| There's Something About Mary | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | Christopher Greenbury |
| Music by | Jonathan Richman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23 million[3] |
| Box office | $369.9 million[3] |
There's Something About Mary is a 1998 Americanromantic comedy film directed by theFarrelly brothers, who co-wrote the screenplay withEd Decter andJohn J. Strauss. The film featuresCameron Diaz as the title character, whileBen Stiller,Matt Dillon,Lee Evans, andChris Elliott all play characters who are in love with Mary, and vying for her affection.
There's Something About Mary was released theatrically on July 15, 1998, by20th Century Fox. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its humor and Diaz's performance. The film became a major box office success, grossing over $369 million worldwide against its $23 million budget, becoming thefourth-highest-grossing film of the year. It is placed 27th in theAmerican Film Institute's100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies, a list of the 100 funniest movies of the 20th century. In 2000, readers ofTotal Film magazine votedThere's Something About Mary the fourth-greatest comedy film of all time.
Diaz won aNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, anMTV Movie Award for Best Performance, anAmerican Comedy Award for Best Actress, aBlockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress. Her performance additionally was nominated for theGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for aGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. It won four out of eightMTV Movie Awards, includingBest Movie.
In 1985Providence, Rhode Island, 16-year-old high school student Ted Stroehmann is about to go on a prom date with his dream girl, Mary Jensen, when he gets hisscrotum stuck in his zipper. He is hospitalized after managing to painfully unzip it, which causes him to miss their date. Ted subsequently loses contact with her.
13 years later, Ted is a magazine writer and still in love with Mary. On the advice of his best friend, Dom Woganowski, Ted hiresprivate investigator Pat Healy to track her down. Pat discovers that she is anorthopedic surgeon living inMiami with herintellectually disabled brother Warren and roommate, Magda. After observing her for a few days, Pat also becomes fixated on her. He returns to Providence and lies to Ted about Mary, telling him she is overweight and has four kids by three different men. Pat quits his job and returns to Miami to pursue her. He resorts to lying and stalking to win Mary over.
Meanwhile, Ted finds out that Pat was lying about Mary and drives to Florida to see her. During the drive, he picks up ahitchhiker who leaves a dead body in his car. Ted is mistakenly arrested for the murder and bailed out by Dom after the hitchhiker confesses to being the killer. Pat and Mary spend several weeks dating, but she ends their relationship after her British architect friend Tucker slanders Pat with false stories of being a career criminal and suspectedserial killer. Angered over this, Pat confronts him and discovers Tucker is actually an American pizza delivery boy named Norm Phipps, who is also infatuated with Mary. Years earlier, Norm deliberately injured himself in order to become her patient and get close to her. He pretends to still be disabled to stay close and drive away other potential love interests. When Ted and Mary begin dating, Pat and Norm team up to drive Ted away.
Mary dumps Ted after she receives an anonymous letter revealing that Ted hired Pat to find her. Ted then angrily confronts Pat and Norm, who deny sending the letter, and Ted leaves in frustration. Dom, who is revealed to be Mary's ex-boyfriend "Woogie", later shows up in her apartment and admits to writing the letter. She previously had arestraining order against Dom after he became obsessed with her, which started again when Ted found her despite being married with kids.
Norm and Pat, listening outside, intervene and save Mary from Dom. Ted then arrives along withBrett Favre, another ex-boyfriend of Mary's whom she dumped after Norm lied about him insulting Warren. Ted declares Brett should be with her since he is the only one not to use deception to win her over. After reuniting Brett with Mary and leaving the other men defeated, a heartbroken Ted leaves in tears. However, he is followed out by Mary, who has decided she'd be happiest with him, and they kiss. Magda's boyfriend uses a sniper rifle to attempt to shoot Ted for kissing Mary (as he is also infatuated with her) but hits one of the nearby band members who had been narrating their love story instead.
There's Something About Mary was directed byPeter andBobby Farrelly, who had previously madeDumb and Dumber in 1994 andKingpin in 1996.[4] According to Bobby, the scene where Ted accidentally gets his scrotum stuck in his pants fly was inspired by a real incident, when their sister was listening to some records with someeighth grade students in the basement of their house: "One of the kids went up [to the bathroom] and he zipped himself up. He was in there for a long time. My dad, who was a doctor, actually had to go in and say, 'Hey, kid. You alright?'"[4] Most of the film was shot inMiami,Florida. The Big Pink Restaurant is where Healy meets with Sully, and the Miami-Dade Cultural Center is the location for the architecture exhibit Mary and Healy attend together. The hair gel scene was filmed at the Cardozo Hotel, while Churchill's Pub was used as astrip club for a scene with Healy.[5] The makeup effects were the handiwork of makeup effects designerTony Gardner.[6]
BesidesBen Stiller, actorsOwen Wilson andJon Stewart were considered potential candidates for the role of Ted Stroehmann.[7]Bill Murray was considered for the role of Pat Healy, but theFarrelly brothers thought he was too old for it.[8]Vince Vaughn andCuba Gooding Jr. were also considered for the role of Pat Healy.[9] Because the Farrelly brothers were fans of theNew England Patriots, they originally wanted to cast quarterbackDrew Bledsoe as Mary's football-playing boyfriend, but he could not do it due to amosh incident he had in a club. The Farrelly brothers later offered the role toSteve Young, but he turned it down due to the film's coarse nature. Ultimately, the role was given toBrett Favre.[10]Chris Farley was considered for the role of Mary's brother Warren, however, his health was in a rapid decline due to his drug addictions and he was forced to turn down the role. He died in December 1997 in the middle of the film's production.[11][12]
There's Something About Mary was released onVHS andDVD on August 3, 1999.[13] Four years later, a new two-disc Collector's Edition DVD release premiered on July 1, 2003.[14] On May 5, 2009, the film was officially released onBlu-ray.[15]
Upon its release,There's Something About Mary ranked in fourth place behindArmageddon,Lethal Weapon 4 andThe Mask of Zorro, collecting $13.7 million during its opening weekend, for a total of $17.8 million from its first five days.[16] DuringLabor Day weekend, the film reached the number one spot, making $10.9 million and beatingBlade.[17]There's Something About Mary was 1998's third-highest-grossing film in North America as well as the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year globally. The film made $369 million worldwide on a budget of $23 million, with $176 million coming from the U.S. and Canada.[3] It was released in theUnited Kingdom on September 25, 1998, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends.[18][19]
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of 87 critics reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "There's Something About Mary proves that unrelentingly, unabashedlypuerile humor doesn't necessarily come at the expense of a film's heart."[20]Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[22]Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, stating, "What a blessed relief is laughter. It flies in the face of manners, values, political correctness, and decorum. It exposes us for what we are, the only animal with a sense of humor."[23]Gene Siskel ranked the film number 9 on his 10 Best films of 1998 (the final "best of" list before his death).[24]
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
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