There’s Something About Mary (1998)
The opening scene of the film features a love ballad sung by a guy strumming a guitar and a drummer up in a tree. The camera then pans down from the tree, to Ben Stiller standing beside it. Stiller is portrayed as a 16 year old geek, who also has geeky mates. The initial sequence is set at a High School in Cumberland, Rhode Island in 1985. Stiller asks a girl out to go with him to the leavers’ prom, but she seems reluctant. When Stiller is hanging out with his mates he spots Cameron Diaz, Diaz is going out with a sporty jock at the time.
A guy called Warren appears and is looking for his lost baseball. Warren is a special needs person, who is picked on by the school bullies. All the while they don’t realise that Warren is Diaz’s brother.
This opening sequence is intended to introduce us to the main characters. It is shot as a flashback to the way they appeared when they were still at school, and had first met each other. They appear to be completely opposite to each other, but being familiar with the ‘romcom’ genre you assume that towards the end of the film they get together. This is typical romance film cliché.
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