There's Something About Mary

This is not, as so many people would have you believe, the funniest film ever.  It is pretty darned funny though.  The Farrelly brothers have taken everything that didn't work in their earlier films Dumb & Dumber and Kingpin and somehow put it altogether in a tasteless, but funny whole.

Ben Stiller does his best work on film as a sadsack who has held a torch for the same woman since high school.  Cameron Diaz is perfect as the object of everyone's affection -- she makes it completely believable that every man she meets would fall for her, and she can tell a joke well, too. 

No sacred horse is safe from this film, prejudice, the mentally ill, stalking, all are grist for jokes.  As much as I hate to say it as an animal lover, the scene with Matt Dillon and the drugged pooch is one of the funniest to hit celluloid this decade.  As any all-but-the-kitchen-sink comedy, there are many misfires, however. 

Some of the better known jokes from the film, like Diaz' hair gel scene aren't really all that funny, but at least you have to give the Farrellys credit for even trying them.  The last half hour drags on incredibly, but if you're looking for a laugh-out-loud comedy, you could do a lot worse.

Dave Strohler