Review of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) by Matt F — 18 Sep 2012

An excellent romantic comedy tinged with just the right amount of familiar Apatow raunchiness, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is two hours packed with heartfelt laughs. The movie follows Peter (Jason Segel), a hapless composer who gets dumped by his longtime TV actress belle (the title character, played by Kristen Bell) and promptly goes to pieces.

He heads off to Hawaii for a change of scenery but, as movie luck would have it, Sarah's there as well, with new boyfriend Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) in tow. Plenty of wacky scenarios ensue and build to a climax that actually satisfies, which is not necessarily the norm in the rom-com genre.

The writing (by Segel as well) is good, mixing gross-out gags and genuine romantic payoffs to great effect. However, the cast elevates the material to another level altogether. They collectively flesh out their characters surprisingly well, with Segel managing to make us root for the oft-humiliated schlub (and has since been typecast in this sort of role) and Kristen Bell thankfully avoiding the ex-girlfriend-as-a-one-note-bitch caricature.

BIll Hader is also excellent as the unsympathetic brother, but the scene-stealer here is Mila Kunis, who made a real star turn and has since gone onto to see her post "The 70s Show" career explode.

A little long at two hours, but the laughs are sustained through the whole running time. Big thumbs up from me.