There's Something About Mary

In 1985 Cumberland, 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 his scrotum 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 hires private investigator Pat Healy to track her down. Pat discovers that she is an orthopedic surgeon living in Miami with her intellectually 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 a hitchhiker 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 suspected serial 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 a restraining 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 with Brett 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. ==Cast==

• Cameron Diaz as Mary Jensen, an orthopedic surgeon who becomes the obsession of several men. She previously lived in Rhode Island, but was forced to change her surname to "Matthews" and move to Florida to avoid a stalker. • Matt Dillon as Pat Healy, a private investigator who becomes obsessed with Mary and quits his job to pursue her. • Ben Stiller as Ted Stroehmann, a magazine writer who is still infatuated with Mary after missing his chance with her as a teenager. • Lee Evans as Tucker/Norm Phipps, a pizza delivery boy who meets Mary while delivering her a pizza and becomes obsessed with her. He adopts the persona of "Tucker", a British architect, and gets his back injured to become one of Mary's patients and get closer to her. Norm hides how his injury has healed. • Chris Elliott as Dom "Woogie" Woganowski, Mary's ex-boyfriend who became obsessed with her to the point where she took out a restraining order against him. • Lin Shaye as Magda, Mary's neighbor and friend. • Jeffrey Tambor as Sully, Healy's friend and contact in Miami. • Markie Post as Sheila Jensen, Mary and Warren's mother. • W. Earl Brown as Warren Jensen, Mary's intellectually disabled brother who is very protective of his ears. • Keith David as Charlie, Mary and Warren's stepfather. • Sarah Silverman as Brenda, Mary's sarcastic best friend. • Khandi Alexander as Joanie, another of Mary's friends. • Richard Tyson as Detective Krevoy. • Rob Moran as Detective Stabler. • Willie Garson as Dr. Bob "Zit Face", Ted's chiropractor and friend from high school. • Harland Williams as The Hitchhiker, an escaped mental patient and murderer (uncredited). • Brett Favre as himself, Mary's ex-boyfriend whom she broke up with after Tucker lied to her about him. • Steve Sweeney as Police Officer. • Jonathan Richman as Jonathan, the singing narrator and a guitarist who always appears with Tommy. • Tommy Larkins as Tommy, a drummer who always appears with Jonathan. • Lenny Clarke as Fireman. • Richard Jenkins as Psychiatrist (uncredited). ==Production==

''There's Something About Mary was directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who had previously made Dumb and Dumber in 1994 and Kingpin'' in 1996. Because the Farrelly brothers were fans of the New England Patriots, they originally wanted to cast quarterback Drew Bledsoe as Mary's football-playing boyfriend, but he could not do it due to a mosh incident he had in a club. The Farrelly brothers later offered the role to Steve Young, but he turned it down due to the film's coarse nature. Ultimately, the role was given to Brett Favre. ==Release==

''There's Something About Mary'' was released on VHS and DVD on August 3, 1999. Four years later, a new two-disc Collector's Edition DVD release premiered on July 1, 2003. On May 5, 2009, the film was officially released on Blu-ray. ==Reception==

Box office Upon its release, ''There's Something About Mary ranked in fourth place behind Armageddon, Lethal Weapon 4 and The Mask of Zorro, collecting $13.7 million during its opening weekend, for a total of $17.8 million from its first five days. During Labor Day weekend, the film reached the number one spot, making $10.9 million and beating Blade. 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 $369million worldwide on a budget of $23million, with $176million coming from the U.S. and Canada. Critical response 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, unabashedly puerile humor doesn't necessarily come at the expense of a film's heart." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. 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." Gene Siskel ranked the film number 9 on his 10 Best films of 1998 (the final "best of" list before his death). Accolades The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: • 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #27 • 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated • 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated • 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Romantic Comedy Film ==Soundtrack==

• "There's Something About Mary" (Jonathan Richman) – 1:47 • "How to Survive a Broken Heart" (Ben Lee) – 2:47 • "Every Day Should Be a Holiday" (The Dandy Warhols) – 4:02 • "Everything Shines" (The Push Stars) – 2:27 • "This Is the Day" (Ivy) – 3:33 • "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" (Joe Jackson) – 3:36 • "True Love Is Not Nice" (Jonathan Richman) – 2:13 • "History Repeating" (The Propellerheads feat. Shirley Bassey) – 4:04 • "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You" (The Lemonheads) – 2:51 • "Mary's Prayer" (Danny Wilson) – 3:54 • "Margo's Waltz" (Lloyd Cole) – 4:01 • "Speed Queen" (Zuba) – 3:44 • "Let Her Go Into the Darkness" (Jonathan Richman) – 1:19 • "Build Me Up Buttercup" (The Foundations) – 2:59 ==References==