1 of 2

Forgetting Sarah Marshall Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: R (for sexual content, language and some graphic nudity) Genre: Comedy Theater release: April 18, 2008 by Universal Studios Directed by: Nicholas Stoller Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes Cast: Jason Segel (Peter Bretter), Kristen Bell (Sarah Marshall), Mila Kunis (Rachel Jansen), Russell Brand (Aldous Snow), Bill Hader (Brian Bretter), Jack McBrayer (Darald), Jonah Hill (Matthew the Waiter), Paul Rudd (Chuck) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the latest project from the Judd Apatow factory, features the same unique blend of raunchy humor and genuine emotion that has characterized his other movies, but unlike The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, it lacks the moralizing and social commentary found in those other films.

Perhaps that's because while Apatow wrote and directed both Virgin and Knocked Up, he was merely a producer—and thus far less hands-on—for Sarah Marshall.

Jason Segel as Peter Bretter, Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall

Written by and starring Jason Segel, and directed by newcomer Nicholas Stoller, Sarah Marshall does attempt to make some kind of comment about the damage caused by infidelity. But none of the "infidelity" involves married couples; most of the sex in the film is extra-marital. And the movie even touches on the need to stand up for a loved one's honor. Decent messages, yes, but subtly presented, and mostly buried beneath the crassness. While 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up were also quite bawdy, their underlying messages—the former celebrated the sanctity of marriage, the latter the sanctity of unborn life—were decidedly more redemptive.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall begins with the most unusual break-up scene in recent memory. Segel (co-star of TV's How I Met Your Mother) plays Peter Bretter, a composer who has just come out of the shower when his girlfriend, a TV actress named Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell, star of Veronica Mars), comes home and lets him know that she is breaking up with him. Peter, shocked, drops his towel—and then spends the rest of the scene completely and utterly naked, even as he pleads with the fully-clothed Sarah not to leave him, or to at least give him one last hug.

Sarah ends up with libidinous Brit rocker Aldous Snow

As it happens, the nudity is not simply there for comedic shock value. In a way, it ties into one of the film's recurring themes, which is the reversal of gender roles and the feminization of men like Peter. Unlike most films of this sort, this one tends to avoid or obscure female nudity, which leaves Peter the only character who is ever fully exposed to the audience—and he turns out to be emotionally vulnerable, too, in a way that has typically been associated with the so-called weaker sex. The women in this film tend to be confident and sexually assertive, and a few of them are all too happy to pick Peter up on the rebound—but even after he sleeps with them, Peter cries and cries like a baby, still overwhelmed by the pain of being dumped.

Eventually, Peter decides that what he needs to do is to go far, far away and forget all about Sarah, and so he goes to Hawaii—where he promptly discovers that he is staying in the same hotel as Sarah and her new boyfriend, a casually narcissistic and sex-crazed British rock star named Aldous Snow (Russell Brand, who has a subtly hilarious way with his oddball dialogue). Oops. But fortunately for Peter, several of the hotel's staffers take pity on him, not least the woman at the front desk, Rachel (Mila Kunis of That '70s Show), who quickly becomes a potential love interest.

Rachel (Mila Kunis) takes a liking to Peter

As ever, the film is buoyed by amusing turns from veterans of Apatow's other movies. Bill Hader appears as Peter's stepbrother, who is married and expecting a child and thus represents, in some sense, the "normal" life that Peter can only aspire to. Paul Rudd plays an upbeat but absent-minded surfing instructor. And Jonah Hill plays a waiter who develops an almost stalker-ish interest in Aldous Snow.

Other actors seem a little more typecast. Jack McBrayer, who plays the dweeby NBC page on TV's 30 Rock, here appears as Darald, the male half of a newlywed couple spending its honeymoon in Hawaii but having some difficulty in the bedroom, largely because Darald feels inhibited by his religious beliefs. Ultimately, Darald discusses his problem with Aldous, of all people, and the rock star, for whom everything is ultimately sexual, gives Darald tips on sexual technique and tells him to say outrageous things to his bride like, "You've got Christ between your thighs."

next page... |  1 of 2 | last page