Forgetting Sarah Marshall Review [2]
Posted by Joseph Lee on 04.23.2008
Who knew one man's pain could be so funny?
Starring:
Jason Segel as Peter Bretter
Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall
Mila Kunis as Rachel Jansen
Russell Brand as Aldous Snow
Story: When a man's life is torn apart by his celebrity girlfriend breaking up with him, he decides to take a vacation in Hawaii. When he gets there, he realizes that she is there with her new boyfriend. As he tries to get over her, he meets new people and a new woman who he begins to connect with.
Trivia: Three of the main stars had popular television roles prior to starring in this movie. Jason Segel worked with Judd Apatow in Freaks and Geeks as well as Undeclared. Kristen Bell was the star of Veronica Mars and Mila Kunis starred in That 70's Show as well as provide the voice of Meg in Family Guy.
So Judd Apatow is the busiest man in Hollywood, it seems. This will be the second year in a row where he has a number comedies come out, produced by Apatow Productions. I generally like all of the films his production company has been involved with. I even enjoyed Drillbit Taylor, although I felt it was one of the weaker films. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the second of four new Apatow movies this year. Can it be as great as it's predecessors? That's exactly what I was wondering.
The first thing I should point out (as it's one of the first scenes in the movie) is that this movie has a lot of Jason Segel penis shots. For a movie that's about the breakup process and finding new love, that was not what I expected to see (although I probably should have, given the raunchy nature of these movies). It doesn't matter though, because it was funny. Really funny, actually. Jason Segel in general holds his own in his first theatrical starring role. It could be when he's naked or fully-clothed and weeping but he handles himself well and was a good choice for his role.
That's not to say that the other members of the cast don't hold up their end of the bargain. I was really pleased to see Mila Kunis in a fairly large film role (let's all try to forget American Psycho 2). I really like her and she does well here. She's not nearly as annoying as her television roles require her to play, so hopefully any stigma there is gone. Kristen Bell surprised me by being just as raunchy as everyone else, but you won't find yourself liking her. She performed well but that's the nature of the movie (more on that later). Russell Brand is the highlight of the movie. He's very funny and tries to steal every scene he's in, sometimes succeeding.
Another great part of the movie is it's story. The lines of course is great, but I mean the plot and "real-life" moments that occur throughout. I read that the break-up scene actually happened to Jason Segel, which is why he wrote it into this movie. There were other moments in the movie that felt "real" and you could empathize with the character as he tried to get over his ex. The character development is also very well-done. The main cast, for the most part, are all three-dimensional and fully developed. Even Sarah Marshall is more complex than just as a "evil ex-girlfriend". This movie could have resorted to stereotypes and thankfully it didn't because it made it that much better.
I'll say this right now. When Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill are the worst aspects of your movie, you're doing very well. That said, while the roles they played were funny, they also felt unnecessary. Neither of the characters were integral to the plot. They felt like they were just there because they've been in a lot of the Apatow movies already. After seeing those two I expected Seth Rogen to show up somewhere but luckily that didn't happen. The cameos took me out of the movie, but luckily it didn't last long.
There's so many elements to this movie that make it great, and hopefully it holds up over time to become one of the better Apatow comedies. Everything just clicks and everything works. I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants a good laugh.
The 411: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a very funny movie. It's also a very true-to-life movie with a well-written script. However it's still hilarious and managed to keep me laughing through the course of it's two hour run time. The laughs and story were combined successfully and resulted in a winner.
