Review of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) by Ben S — 09 Feb 2013

Superior Judd Apatow-produced comedy, written by and starring Jason Segel as Peter who visits Hawaii to escape his grief, after being left by his TV star girlfriend Sarah Marshall. Alas, as he checks into the hotel he discovers Sarah and her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) are also staying there. But with comfort from new friends and hotel receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis) Peter tries to move on.

Despite being formulaic and striking the same balance between sentimentality and bawdy humour as the rest of the Apatow stable, the presence of Segel in a leading role lifts the film above many other studio comedies. Eminently likeable and with great screen presence, he always brings something to every role but given the opportunity to lead a picture (from his own script) he really comes into his own, cutting the perfect slacker hero. Keeping his performance fairly low key and allowing the script and a lively support cast to provide the energy and gags, Segel basically plays the straight man, but with a genuine warmth often absent from mainstream comedy. Russell Brand turns in an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the rock star, and is another of the film's highlights, bringing some dry wit to the otherwise fairly lewd and broad American comedy.

Another of Apatow's trademarks seems to be producing overlong pictures, and Sarah Marshall is no different. Clocking in at 111 minutes it's a good 20 minutes too long and you can certainly feel every one of them as the story begins to wrap up. Awful pacing contributes to this, almost drawing to a halt in the central portion and nearly undoing the goodwill generated at the start. It also feels fairly disjointed, occasionally like a collection of sketches used to make the most of the strong support cast, with a rom-com narrative draped over the top of it. However these are petty annoyances in what is a solidly funny comedy, kept ticking by the fantastic Jason Segel. It also includes the best puppet Dracula song ever committed to screen.