Film

There's Something About Mary

Name: There's Something About Mary
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Released: 1998
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, Lee Evans, Chris Elliott

Comedy
Romantic comedy
Light-hearted

The film that made gross-out comedy commercially unstoppable, and somehow smuggled real sweetness through the wreckage. Ben Stiller plays the lovesick dork chasing a prom-night crush thirteen years on, dogged by a private investigator willing to lie, cheat and sabotage to keep her for himself. It's filthy, fast, absurdly escalating — a studio comedy that dares you to wince and swoon in the same breath.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy comedy that commits fully to escalating humiliation and bad decisions, where the laughs come from a sweet-natured hero making a mess of things with total sincerity.

Skip it if you wince at crude, bodily gags and would rather your romantic comedy stay tasteful; the broad, sometimes grubby set pieces may test your patience.

What it asks of you: Two hours of loud, physical set pieces and sitcom-quick timing, with the sentiment arriving in short bursts rather than slow builds.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Meet the Parents2000

Stiller doing the same wounded-underdog-in-love routine, this time terrorised by Robert De Niro's ex-CIA father-in-law instead of a sleazy PI. Same escalating-disaster engine, same nervous sweat.

But The humiliation is more sustained dread than slapstick chaos — if you want anarchic gross-out, this feels more controlled and squirmy.

Dumb and Dumber1994

The Farrelly Brothers' first great gross-out romp, dumber, sweeter, and somehow purer than Mary — proof they'd been sharpening this exact blade of stupidity for years.

But No real romance to anchor it — this is pure idiot-buddy comedy, not the odd tenderness Mary has underneath the gags.

American Pie1999

Same year, same appetite for turning horniness into set-piece disaster — this one just swaps the awkward adult for a whole cast of awkward teenagers.

But Younger, cruder, and more scattershot — less interested in character than in getting to the next mortifying gag.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from There's Something About Mary

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Bringing Up Baby1938

Same engine, seventy years earlier: a hapless man and a chaotic woman are shoved through an escalating farce of stolen identities, leopards and broken engagements. It invented the template Mary is still running.

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn perfected the screwball chase-comedy decades before the Farrellys existed — this is where the DNA for chaotic romantic-disaster comedy actually comes from.

But Black and white, rapid-fire 1930s dialogue, zero gross-out — if it's the bodily-fluid gags you came for, this is all wit and no ick.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin2005

Steve Carell channels the same lovable-loser energy Stiller brought to Ted, wrapped in raunch that somehow never curdles into meanness. Genuinely sweet under the filth.

But Slower burn, more hangout-comedy digression — if you want Mary's relentless plot machinery, this ambles more than it sprints.

Wedding Crashers2005

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson bring the same chaotic-suitor energy, crashing weddings for sex and stumbling into actual love. Big laughs, big heart, big regret.

But The two leads are more charming rogues than lovable dorks — less Ted's earnest ache, more effortless charisma.

Knocked Up2007

Apatow's comedy of terrible timing and worse decisions, built on the same instinct that gross bodily comedy and real emotional stakes aren't opposites.

But Runs long and gets talky — this is comedy that pauses to have feelings, which isn't always what you want after Mary's manic pace.

Kingpin1996

The Farrellys again, bowling instead of romance, with Woody Harrelson's disgraced pro and Randy Quaid's Amish protégé hustling toward a title. Same gleeful cruelty, same soft centre.

But No love story to speak of — if it's the romantic ache you want, this one's all sports-comedy underdog instead.

Bridesmaids2011

Turns the gross-out formula loose on a female friendship instead of a romance, with Kristen Wiig proving disaster-comedy plays just as well from the other side.

But The romance is a subplot, not the engine — this is really about jealousy and friendship, a different itch entirely.

Zoolander2001

Stiller again, dialled up into full cartoon idiocy — if you liked watching him flail through humiliation, here he flails through fashion instead of romance.

But Broader and sillier, with none of Mary's grounding sweetness — pure spoof, not an underdog love story.

Vertigo1958

Strip away the jokes and Mary is about a man who's spent thirteen years in love with an idea of a woman rather than the woman herself. Vertigo takes that same obsession dead seriously and turns it into a nightmare.

Hitchcock's masterpiece about a man rebuilding a lost love from memory and longing — the darker, more serious cousin to Ted's decade-long fixation, minus any laughs.

But A slow, unsettling psychological thriller with no comedy whatsoever — a genuinely different mood, not a lighter night in.

Catfish2010

Pat Healy lies his way into Mary's life to keep a rival away from her — Catfish is a real-world documentary about exactly that instinct, people constructing false selves to win or keep someone's love.

A documentary that plays out like a thriller, following a young man's online romance that turns out to be built on an elaborate deception — awkward, sad, unexpectedly moving.

But No jokes, no farce — it's quiet and real, and the discomfort comes from genuine heartbreak rather than slapstick humiliation.