The story of this worldwide hit from the late 1990s is that of a silly “romcom” as one might wish: a single thirty-year-old finds the irresistible blonde he secretly loved when he was a teenager. But under the leadership of the Farrelly brothers, this harmless pitch serves as a pretext for the most caustic gags that American comedy has served us in its time.
From the fly stuck in the family jewelry to the cult scene of organic gel in Cameron Diaz’s hair, the film pushes all the limits of bad taste and excess without ever falling into easy cynicism where humor would be considered constant hazing. Because the great strength of the Farrellys lies in the affection they feel for their characters, living caricatures of what America counts as freaks (withered bimbos charring under the Florida sun, mentally deficient people…) and what American cinema identifies as archetypes (the eternal bunghole, the private, the young first, etc.), revisited here from a deliciously parodic angle.
The sequel after the ad
A last word on Ben Stiller, whose first big role here is: both moving in his feverishness and endowed with a staggering comic palette, he established himself as the funniest actor of the 2000s.
Tuesday April 25 at 9:05 p.m. on 6ter. American comedy by Peter and Bobby Farrelly (1998). Starring Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller. 1h55.
