Story of movie There%27s Something About Mary : There's Something About Mary is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. It stars Cameron Diaz as the titular character with Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, Lee Evans and Chris Elliott all playing men who are in love with Mary and vying for her affections.
| There's Something About Mary | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Peter Farrelly Bobby Farrelly |
| Produced by | Michael Steinberg Bradley Thomas Charles B. Wessler Frank Beddor |
| Screenplay by | Ed Decter John J. Strauss Peter Farrelly Bobby Farrelly |
| Story by | Ed Decter John J. Strauss |
| Starring |
|
| Narrated by | Jonathan Richman |
| Music by | Jonathan Richman |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | Christopher Greenbury |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23 million |
| Box office | $369.9 million |
The film was placed 27th in the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies, a list of the 100 funniest movies of the 20th century. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the fourth-greatest comedy film of all time. Diaz won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, an MTV Movie Award for Best Performance, an American Comedy Award for Best Actress, a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress. She also received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. It won 4 out of 8 MTV Movie Awards, including Best Movie.
Screenplay
In 1985, 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 a zipper. He is hospitalized when it bleeds after being unzipped, which cancels their date. Ted subsequently loses contact with Mary.
Thirteen years later, in 1998, 29-year-old Ted is still in love with Mary. On the advice of his best friend Dom Woganowski, he hires a private detective named Pat Healy to track her down. Pat discovers that she is an orthopedic surgeon living in Miami with her friend, Magda, and instantly falls in love with Mary as well. He lies to Ted about her, saying she is overweight with five children by four men and confined to a wheelchair, to discourage him from having any contact with her. Pat resorts to lying, cheating, stalking, and drugging Magda's dog to win Mary over, but is exposed by Mary's British architect friend, Tucker, who is heavily reliant on crutches. Enraged after overhearing Tucker subsequently slander him as a murderer, Pat tails Tucker and discovers him to be a fraud himself: he is an able-bodied, entirely American pizza delivery boy named Norm Phipps who is also in love with Mary. For years, Norm has been driving away potential rivals through slander, including one oft-mentioned suitor referred to only as "Brett."
Meanwhile, Ted decides he still wants to reconnect with Mary and, assisted by Dom, drives down to Florida and discovers the truth about her. Ted seems to have won Mary's love, until an anonymous letter exposes his connection with Pat, and she breaks contact with him. Ted confronts Pat and Norm, and Mary is accosted by Dom, who is revealed to be her ex-boyfriend "Woogie" that she has a restraining order against, and was the one who sent the letter. He wants to reconnect with her as well, which she quickly refuses, so he tries to steal her shoes. Ted, Norm, and Pat arrive, and, when Mary is finally together with all of her deceitful suitors, Ted realizes that the only one who did not resort to lying or manipulation to win over Mary was Brett, who he learns is NFL quarterback Brett Favre. After reuniting Brett and Mary, Ted leaves tearfully until Mary catches up to Ted, saying that "I'd be happiest with you".
The film concludes with the two engaging in a kiss while singer/songwriter Jonathan Richman, who has periodically narrated the story in song throughout the film, is accidentally shot by Magda's boyfriend, who was trying to shoot Ted so he could win over Mary.
- Cameron Diaz as Mary Jensen
- Ben Stiller as Ted Stroehmann
- Matt Dillon as Pat Healy
- Chris Elliott as Dom Woganowski
- Lee Evans as Tucker/Norm Phipps
- Lin Shaye as Magda
- Jeffrey Tambor as Sully
- Markie Post as Sheila Jensen, Mary's mother
- Keith David as Charlie, Mary's stepfather
- W. Earl Brown as Warren Jensen, Mary's mentally disabled brother
- Sarah Silverman as Brenda, Mary's sarcastic best friend
- Khandi Alexander as Joanie
- Willie Garson as Dr. Zit Face
- Harland Williams as The Hitchhiker
- Richard Tyson as Detective Krevoy
- Rob Moran as Detective Stabler
- Jonathan Richman as The Singing Narrator
- Steve Sweeney as Policeman
- Lenny Clarke as Fireman
- Richard Jenkins as Psychiatrist
There's Something About Mary was filmed in Miami, Florida. The Big Pink Restaurant is where Healy meets with Sully, the hair gel scene was filmed at the Cardozo Hotel, and the Miami-Dade Cultural Center was the location for the architecture exhibit Mary and Healy attended together. Churchill's Pub was used as a strip club for a scene with Healy. The makeup effects and animatronic animal effects were the handiwork of Makeup Effects Designer Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc.
Besides Ben Stiller, actors Owen Wilson and Jon Stewart were considered potential candidates for the role of Ted Stroehmann. Bill Murray was considered for the role of Pat Healy, but the Farrelly brothers thought he was too old for it. Brett Favre plays himself in a cameo that was originally written-for and offered to NFL quarterback Steve Young, but he turned the role down due to the film's coarse nature and was replaced with Favre.
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. It was released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 1998, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends.
The film received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 83% based on 83 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10, with the consensus: "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 score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 29 critics.
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 No.9 on his 10 Best films of 1998 (the final "best of" list he did before passing away).
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
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
