Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, Lee Evans
Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure. It released in that unique period of life where I had to exercise diplomacy and rhetorical skills that normally would have gotten me a job with the United Nations so that I could record an R-rated movie off of HBO for my future edification. It certainly helped that dear old dad thought it was the funniest movie he had ever seen, and needed his son to bear witness to it.
Did I Like It: Although, the experience of watching it on release at the age of 14 is a stark difference from re-watching it again after a long time at the age of 41. The embarrassment hits differently. The nostalgia, too. Regret for missed chances*.
That’s a lot for a comedy to fall into, much less aspire towards. I think one of the few things that has become abundantly clear lately is that comedy inherently ages poorly. Everybody quotes lines from Anchorman (2004) for the better part of a year, and the memory of laughing so hard you lost your breath begin to fade, because there isn’t much else there. Ace Ventura Pet Detective (1994) goes from being every ten-year-old’s favorite movie to a willfully toxic, singularly unwatchable mess.
Here, though, there’s an interesting alchemy in mixing the pitch-black heart of masculinity gone wrong and genuine warmth. It makes the jokes still work. It makes what we would easily call political incorrectness still amusing, when it is coming from either human error (hair gel, I’m looking in your direction), or the willful caterwauling of the worst people you can imagine (now it’s your turn, Matt Dillon).
In short, the comedy of There’s Something About Mary still works because there is something human at the core of it all. I wasn’t expecting that upon re-watching it all these years later.
*This feels like what Heather Burns called in You’ve Got Mail (1998) as “like people who brag because they’re tall,” but I’m not cursed with too terribly much of that particular problem.