Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Cast:
- Jason Segel
- Kristen Bell
- Mila Kunis
- Russell Brand
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Review - "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
Reviewer: Charise Payne
Rating:
When you hear the words crying, depression, overeating and endless chatter, you think of girls, right? In "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", actor and writer Jason Segel reminds you that men cry, eat junk food and that their hearts do shatter over break-ups. They might console themselves with meaningless sex, but that’s how they mourn. This hilarious comedy, brought you by Judd Apatow (the man who gave you "Knocked Up", "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Superbad"), delivers another comedy classic.
Jason Segel stars as Peter Bretter, a pathetic musician who hates his job and wants to write musical theater instead. The only thing he cherishes is his long-time girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Marshall is an actress who stars in a "CSI"-wannabe TV show. But she has issues with Peter: he has become a slacker. All he does all day is watch TV, eat junk food, and bums on the internet. Sarah wants more from life than Peter can provide, so she dumps him, albeit while he is naked.
Peter is completely crushed. All he can think about is Sarah and their amazing relationship. He tries meeting and mating with other women, but nothing works. Desperately trying to get away from all of the reminders of Sarah in his life, Peter flies to Hawaii to a hotel Sarah had once told him was amazing. But what Peter doesn’t know is that Sarah and her new boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), a British rock star who writes music that promotes world peace and a greener environment, have decided to take a vacation at the same time and at the same hotel. And as you can imagine, a week of hell is about to ensue!
When Peter sees Sarah, he can’t believe it and feels completely crushed again. The hotel customer service representative, Rachel (Mila Kunis), sees how hurt Peter is and takes pity on him. Rachel is kind and tries to become Peter’s friend, but he just sees her as a potential rebound girl. But Rachel is also suffering from a broken heart and is in no way ready for a relationship of any kind and just wants to be friends. While trying to distract himself from thinking about Sarah, Peter decides to take surfing lessons from a stoner surf instructor played by Paul Rudd. Also put of the mix of misfits is Darald (Jack McBrayer), a religious zealot who is on his honeymoon but has no clue about sex, and if he can’t fix that soon, he will leave his honeymoon a virgin.
As Peter becomes better friends with Rachel, he is able to tolerate seeing Sarah and Aldous. He even learns to like Aldous, and he gradually becomes more comfortably with the idea of Sarah not being his girlfriend. As the story continues, we learn that Peter was not completely responsible for the breakup. Peter and Sarah show us the root of their problems via flashbacks, and we find that Peter might be a bit of a loser, but Sarah is a selfish brat. Peter and Sarah each have their shortcomings and are both at fault for their breakup.
Some of the best comedic scenes are given to Jonah Hill as an Aldous-obsessed hotel waiter, and Bill Hader as Peter's stepbrother (who offers help via cell phone and webcam). Taylor Wily and Davon McDonald also cracked me up, and I laughed each time they were on the screen. One of my favorite moments was the Dracula musical; ah, it was a classic, and I would seriously see that in real life.
The film is great because of how real it was. You could feel Segel bare his soul in his work. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the premise came from his own life. Another wonderful thing is that Segal didn’t steal all the best material for himself; he shared the comedic wealth, making it a better and well rounded comedy. Segal is a talented writer, and I can’t wait to hear more from him in the future.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a comedic film, and a bloody good one at that, but it was still a story about a broken heart and how it takes time to heal, and I loved it for that. What I didn’t like about the film was the nudity. I know it was there to make the audience feel uncomfortable and feel that sense of awkwardness the character is feeling, but for me it just stopped the film. A butt cheek would have been better then the full-monty. Just saying!
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