There's Something About Mary

In one sentence: A 1998 Farrelly Brothers comedy about a man chasing his high school crush through Miami, with $176 million in box-office proof that audiences wanted exactly this kind of chaos.

The setup: Why this prom night still matters

There's Something About Mary opens with Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller) at his high school prom—and then everything goes catastrophically wrong in a way that defines the next thirteen years of his life. The film doesn't waste time with setup. Within minutes, you understand why Ted is broken, why he obsesses over Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz), and why hiring a sleazy private investigator named Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to track her down in Miami seems like his only option.

What follows is genuinely chaotic. Multiple men competing for Mary's attention. A confused dog. One scene involving hair gel that you absolutely cannot unsee. The thing nobody mentions is how much the film actually commits to emotional stakes underneath the gross-out humor—there's a porch scene late in the film where Ted and Mary actually talk, and it feels like it belongs in a different, quieter movie entirely. That contrast is what makes the comedy land.

Why 1998 audiences lost their minds (and why it still works)

Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly had already made Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin, so people knew what they were in for. But nobody quite expected the scale of the reaction. There's Something About Mary opened in July 1998 and eventually grossed $176,484,651 domestically—one of the highest-earning comedies of the entire decade.

Here's what's striking: the film has an R rating and pushes gags well past the point of comfort, yet it still earned that kind of money. That tells you something about what audiences actually wanted in 1998.

The cast assembled here was remarkable. Cameron Diaz was already a star, but this film cemented her as a comedic force—her Mary is warm, funny, and completely believable as someone every man in the movie would lose his mind over. Matt Dillon plays Pat Healy with a particular kind of sleazy confidence that shouldn't be as funny as it is. Lee Evans, largely unknown to American audiences at the time, nearly steals the whole film as Tucker. Chris Elliott and Lin Shaye round out the ensemble with supporting roles that are weirder and more committed than most actors would attempt.

Critically, the film landed with surprising strength—84% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is solid for a comedy dismissed by some as juvenile shock humor. It collected 17 wins and 17 nominations across various awards circuits, with particular recognition for Diaz's performance. Variety reported at release that it was "the most brazenly funny movie of the summer," and that assessment held up well enough to make the film a reference point for every raunchy comedy that followed.

What makes the performances actually work

I keep coming back to Matt Dillon's work here—it might be the most underrated comedic turn of the entire 1990s. Pat Healy's increasingly desperate attempts to reinvent himself as Mary's ideal man (pretending to work with special-needs adults, faking a love of sport fishing) are funny not just because they're absurd, but because Dillon plays them with total sincerity. He commits completely.

Ben Stiller, who's made a career out of playing men humiliated by circumstance, has never been better deployed than here. Ted isn't a jerk. He's genuinely, almost painfully earnest. The Farrellys understood something most gross-out comedies miss entirely: the gags only land if you actually care about the characters. So they built a film where the raunchiest moments sit right next to genuine romantic tenderness.

Most of the humor comes from character rather than setup. That's rarer than it sounds.

Where to watch and what to know before you start

There's Something About Mary runs 119 minutes—on the longer side for a comedy, but it doesn't feel padded because multiple storylines keep the plot moving simultaneously.

You can find it on major streaming services; check Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker at the top of the page for current platform availability, since libraries shift constantly. The widget updates in real time, so you won't waste time opening five different apps trying to figure out where it landed this month.

Key facts:

• Release: July 1998
• Directors: Peter & Bobby Farrelly
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rating: R (strong sexual content, crude humor, language)
• Box office: $176.5 million domestic
• Not for kids. Several scenes are genuinely unsuitable for younger viewers regardless of how you feel about the rating system.

If you liked Dumb and Dumber or There's Something About Mary's blend of raunchy comedy with surprising heart, you've already seen most of what the Farrellys' catalog has to offer—but this one's the peak. Start here.

Why it hasn't aged cleanly (and why that kind of matters)

Some of the humor hasn't held up perfectly—certain supporting subplots run a beat or two long, and a few jokes land differently now than they did in 1998. That's worth knowing upfront. But as a piece of comedic craft, the film's hard to argue with. The performances are sharp, the central romance actually works, and the Farrelly Brothers' willingness to commit completely to every bit gives the whole thing an energy that most comedies can't manufacture.

Look—there are comedies from this era that feel dated. There's Something About Mary feels lived-in. The aesthetic's specific to 1998, sure, but the character work transcends that. Watch it knowing it's a product of its time, and you'll understand why audiences kept coming back to it.

Movie OTT recommends it without reservation for anyone who can handle an R-rated comedy with genuine heart underneath the chaos. If you haven't seen it, fix that. If you have, you already know why you're here.