Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
And the hits keep on coming. After staggering a bit in the quality department with Drillbit Taylor, the House of Judd Apatow produces another unqualified winner. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL (which Apatow produced) is the story of Peter (Jason Segel, Seth Rogen's very tall friend in KNOCKED UP), a musician for a successful television cop show starring his girlfriend, actress Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). The two have been a couple for many years, but one day she announces that she's leaving him.
The scene would be tragic if Peter wasn't completely naked in what might be the most memorable breakup scene ever filmed. Peter wallows in a sea of self-pity over his loss until his friend Brian ("SNL's" Bill Hader, who seems to get funnier each time I see him) suggests that Peter take a vacation somewhere to take his mind off things. Peter remembers Sarah talking about a resort in Hawaii, and so he hops on a plane and decides to take a trip. Soon after arriving in this island paradise where couples are getting married or honeymooning all around him, Peter runs into Sarah along with her rock star boyfriend Aldous Snow (the scene-stealing Russell Brand). The couple is essentially in a non-stop game of slap-and-tickle, and Peter's world is shattered once again at the beginning of what promises to be the worst vacation ever.
Most of what I've just outlined takes up about the first 20-30 minutes of the film. What the film could have done is turn Peter into a stalker trying to ruin his ex-girlfriend's spirited and athletic sex vacation. But the screenplay (by Segel) is much smarter and more layered than that. Peter makes friends with Rachel (Mila Kunis from "That '70s Show"), the front-desk clerk at the resort. Their relationship seems more based on her taking pity on him, but a really nice friendship develops that eases his suffering a little bit at a time. First-time director Nicholas Stoller (a writer for the Apatow-created TV show "Undeclared") shows a nice touch for drawing these characters and making us really enjoy their company. As with many Apatow films, there are no villains, just people we are meant to like more than others. We even grow mildly fond of Sarah by the end of the film, especially after the best-written scene in the film in which she finally explains to Peter why she ended their relationship (reasons that seem wholly acceptable and universal).
Sure, we still get the patented extended cameos from the Apatow stable. Paul Rudd is on hand as a dim-witted surfing instructor who gives Peter some truly uninspired life coaching. And the exceptional Jonah Hill plays a waiter at the resort who happens to be an obsessive fan of Aldous the rock star. Forgetting Sarah Marshall has a lot of nice touches, such as the snippets of Peter's Dracula-inspired rock opera and the unconventional track that Peter and Rachel's relationship takes. Segel not only shows that he has a gift for screenwriting one of the best romantic-comedies I've seen in years, but he really shines here as an actor. I was afraid Segel would wear the hang-dog face he has for much of the film's early scenes, but once he begins to relax and consider his life and future with Sarah, he takes on a truly likable tone without sapping it up. Peter is a flawed character, to be sure, but those flaws are part of his charm and not something to be eliminated or "fixed" by a woman.
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL makes comedy and relationship movies look easy and effortless. I've never been of the school that Bell is the end-all most beautiful, desirable woman on the planet (she seems like a lovely person, don't get me wrong), but my exposure to her work has been limited. That said, she's totally fearless in this film, getting put through the sex-comedy paces without compromise. There's a quick montage of her sexual escapes with the rock star that is a riot, and a botched rekindling with Peter late in the film is awe-inspiring if only because it's one of the most awkward sequences ever committed to film.
As for Kunis, she's more my type and she wears her role as part-rebound, part-therapist to Peter perfectly. It extremely difficult to find flaws with this wonderful film. Some might grumble about the standard-issue Apatow running time of two hours, but I didn't even notice the time. I was too busy laughing. And when I wasn't laughing, I was trying to figure out what jokes I missed while I was laughing. And if you have issues with long running times, look at it this way: you pay the same ticket price for a hilarious two-hour R-rated movie as you do a 85-minute piece of crap PG-13-rated comedy. So which film should you really be grumbling about?
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the comedy to beat this year.
Capone
