Individualized Performance

There's definitely something about Mary (Cameron Diaz) that keeps everybody wanting more! Ted (Ben Stiller) is a man that can't get his high school crush off of his mind, even thirteen years later he still can't seem to shake the infamous Mary from his thoughts. Ted had an amazing opportunities that definitely did not come to teenagers of his stature. Ted was the geeky type while Mary was the most popular female in school that wanted to go to prom with him. Unfortunately Ted accidentally zips his penis in his pants causing him to bleed massively leading him to the hospital which lead him to miss out on his prom. Ted was not only mad that he would miss out on his prom, but he would miss out on a shot of a lifetime with Mary.
With all of these horrible memories of the past fifteen years later Ted still wants to date Mary and find out if she's interested. Finding Mary would be a very difficult search considering the fact that Ted has no idea where to start. Ted decides to hire a private investigator named Healy (Matt Dillon) that does in deed find Mary and is intrigued with what he sees. He too begins to slowly but steadily began to fall for Mary, and leads him to give Ted false information about Mary. Healy tells Ted that Mary has tons of kids and has gained hundreds of pounds to detour Ted from liking Mary anymore. This information really shocks Ted because he didn't think Mary would grow up to be the type of woman to let herself go like that. Ted's friend Bob (Willie Garson) tells Ted that he recently saw Mary at a convention in Florida and she looked great! (IMBd)

Ted soon realizes that all of the information was a lie that Healy stated about Mary. But why would Healy lie to him about information about Mary? Healy moves to Florida to pursue Mary and Ted discovers this when he flys to Florida to find Mary and confess his love. Ted eventually finds Mary and scores a date with her. The date didn't go as planned but it definitely was much better than the incident before prom. Tucker (Lee Evans) an admirer of Mary's for a while is threatened by the new men in Mary's life and does not like it, so he begins to provide information about Healy's criminal record to Mary which detour's her from him and centers her concentration on Ted. Healy and Tucker end up working together to break up the connection that Mary and Ted has but is unsuccessful at it.
This film can be categorized as individualized because of the signifigance that Mary's character portrays. Mary's character is a great example of an individualized character because she has distinctive moments that only Mary would perform in throughout the film. For an example the simple fact that Mary would even seriously consider Ted as a prom date considering their social differnces proves that Mary is a very individualstic person. Mary's facial expressions as well as her clothing and overall attitude proves this. The scence where Mary and Ted go on a date after fifteen years is another example of how Mary's character is individualized. In that particualr scence Mary goes to the bathroom to put gel on her hair and comes out with a portion of her hair sticking up on the top of her head. Mary being the corky person that she is doesn't even notice while Ted does but he likes her so much that he doesn't even mention it.

Sources:

Diaz, Cameron, perf. There's something about Mary. 1998. Twentieth Century Fox. DVD.

IMDb. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. <www.imdb.com>.