Matt Dillon is especially good at playing men who have little cause to feel pleased with themselves. We rate his comic restraint, particularly in There's Something About Mary, where he makes smugness funny without asking us to approve of it.
Fi1m perspective
Matt Dillon lets Pat Healy look thoroughly pleased with himself in There's Something About Mary (1998). The scheming investigator has little reason for such satisfaction, which is what makes Dillon's patience so funny. We laughed at Healy's smugness because he seems quite content with behaviour that ought to embarrass him. Dillon trusts that we can see what is wrong with this man; he does not need to keep pointing it out.
Early typecasting as a tough or rebellious young man made him easy to underestimate. He debuted in Over the Edge (1979) and became a teen star through films including Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders (1983), playing Dallas Winston. The important turn was Drugstore Cowboy (1989), with Dillon as the drug-addicted Bob Hughes. That move into adult roles brought recognition for the depth he could give a troubled outsider, a welcome correction to the narrow early image.
The later parts suggest little desire to become more agreeable. In Crash (2005) he plays Officer John Ryan; in Lars von Trier's The House That Jack Built (2018), he plays the serial killer Jack. There is a risk in repeatedly choosing men with an edge: eventually the casting can tell us what to expect before the performance has begun. Comedy gives him something else to do with those familiar faults, making them funny without making the men less objectionable.
The Farrellys get particularly good comic work from him in There's Something About Mary, where Cameron Diaz supplies the warmth and he supplies much of the bad behaviour. His unforced performance is a useful change of pace in a film straining elsewhere to be outrageous. The reservation is about the ensemble: with Lee Evans's rival Tucker adding to the competition, the men start to crowd Mary out, and the running time needs firmer control. Start here for Dillon's comedy, provided the surrounding foolishness is your sort of evening.
Biography
Matt Dillon is an American actor and film director. He made his feature film debut in Over the Edge (1979) and rose to prominence in the early 1980s with roles in My Bodyguard (1980), Little Darlings (1980) and The Outsiders (1983).
Dillon has appeared in a range of films including Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Singles (1992), There's Something About Mary (1998) as Pat Healy, Wild Things (1998) and Crash (2004), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He made his directorial debut with City of Ghosts (2002) and starred in the television series Wayward Pines (2015). He is the brother of actor Kevin Dillon.
