THE AISLE SEAT - "THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY"

by Mike McGranaghan

There used to be a time when movies weren't afraid to make you laugh at things. There was no "political correctness" so anything was fair game, and consequently, the best comedies made you laugh so hard you couldn't breathe. Animal House, Caddyshack, Blazing Saddles - all of them classics. These days, most comedies fall into one of two categories: the Spade/Farley/Sandler style of juvenile humor or the kind that want to make you feel something (think of the dreadful Billy Crystal/Robin Williams movie Fathers Day, which brought together two of the funniest people in the whole world, only to spend most of its running time trying to give the audience "heart").

As I scan the list of movies I've seen this year, I realize that - although some of them have been very funny - there hasn't been a genuine roll-on-the-floor comedy in a long time. Until now. It's called There's Something About Mary, and it was directed by the Farrelly Brothers - Peter and Bobby - who unleash a raucous, hilarious comedy on America's theaters about once every two years (Dumb & Dumber in 1994, Kingpin in 1996). Their movies are a throwback to the old style of humor that found inspiration in the taboo, the crude, and the scatological. Bad taste? Sure, but also funnier than anything else on the screen these days.

Ben Stiller stars as Ted, a geeky high school student who improbably gets a date to the prom with Mary (Cameron Diaz), the most beautiful girl in school. What should be the happiest night of young Ted's life turns into a nightmare when he has a major accident with his pants (the first gut-busting laugh of the movie). He and Mary never make it to the prom, and her family moves out of town soon afterward.

Thirteen years later, Ted is still obsessed with Mary. He hires a seedy insurance investigator named Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to track her down. Healy finds Mary and becomes attracted to her himself. Several other male characters compete for her attention as well. Mary, you see, is every guy's dream (as is Cameron Diaz); she's smart, funny, gorgeous, down-to-earth. Best of all, she describes the perfect man as being an out-of-shape, beer-drinking sports fan. To make a long story short (and to leave out plenty of juicy details), Healy plans to win Mary for himself, but Ted has other ideas.

It isn't easy to write about this movie because so much of it comes as a surprise; revealing too much would be unforgivable. The Farrelly Brothers specialize in pulling humor out of the most unlikely of places at the least likely of times. There are jokes here about mental retardation, homosexuality, masturbation, handicaps, and so on. The humor isn't cruel, just outrageous. Mary's neighbor is a woman who has spent so much time in the sun, she makes a saddlebag look good. Mary's retarded brother throws Ted around like a wrestler. The movie doesn't make fun of these people but it does find humor in their lives. It's a fine line between outrageousness and cruelty; There's Something About Mary walks right up to that line without ever crossing it.

The Farrelly Brothers are sometimes compared to the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team that made the Naked Gun movies and several of their spawn. I'm not sure the comparison is a good one. Although I usually laugh myself silly at the Z-A-Z comedies, I also walk away feeling a little bit empty. Their movies are 90 minutes of rapid-fire jokes but nothing more. The Farrelly boys actually take their characters and stories seriously. There's Something About Mary has a sincere romantic spirit. I liked Ted. I adored Mary. Their story drew me in. The zany humor serves to punctuate what is essentially a very sweet-natured romance acted out by a superbly funny cast.

Those zany moments had me roaring with laughter, though. Every good comedy will have at least one moment so hysterically funny that it becomes a you-gotta-see-it event you want to tell all your friends about. I'm thinking back on the film and realizing that - for me - There's Something About Mary had at least seven such moments. There's that prom catastrophe where Ted gets his... And the scene where Pat has to wake up the dog using... Or later when the dog goes nuts after ingesting... Or the one where Pat looks through the binoculars and sees... Or the one where Mary shows up at Ted's hotel room to find... Well, no point in spoiling the punchlines. See it for yourself.

There won't be a funnier movie all year than There's Something About Mary.

( 1/2 out of four)

There's Something About Mary is rated R for crude humor, drug references, and brief nudity. The running time is 1 hour and 54 minutes.