Forgetting Sarah Marshall

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Summary:
Peter needs to get away so he can forget about his TV star ex-girlfriend, who just broke up with him. He heads to Hawaii. At the exact same hotel resort as Sarah... who is with her new boyfriend.

Review:
Jason Segel let's it all hang out - and I mean physically - for his first "big" role in a movie. Not to say his roll isn't "big", but I don't get how comedies feel that a naked man is inherently funny. Just a couple months ago I was watching Dewey Cox, and some bloke is showing his twig and berries in a couple of superfluous moments. I chuckled slightly the first time it happened, but then the other three times was not just overkill, but entirely unfunny. Seeing Pete's "peter" in Forgetting Sarah Marshall for those numerous 2 second flashes wasn't even funny the FIRST time they did it. I hope in the future if there is male nudity that it's not for unfunny comedy. It wasn't as bad as Borat's painful scene.
I'll move on...

I had a decent amount of laughs, evenly disbursed throughout its runtime. So as a comedy, it provided for me more than it didn't. On the dramatic front, I wasn't so impressed. I was thinking, "so he gets back with Sarah unless he meets a hot chick in Hawaii." The moment Mila Kunis showed her super-fine face with a smile behind the Turtle Bay Resort front counter, I knew how this movie would end! Small complaint, considering my desire to laugh more than be dramatically rocked.
As a romance story, Marshall has its' heart in the right place. I respect the efforts taken to avoid making anyone a cut & paste slice of one-dimensional fluff. The new boyfriend wasn't wearing a "HATE ME I'M AN ASSHOLE!" sign every time he showed up. Aldous is a free spirited, somewhat simple-minded new boyfriend that isn't intentionally unkind. Like Peter himself, I fell into his simplistic charms and open heart. He was a pretty cool dude; even if he was a man-whore. His admittance to sexual freedom and lack of monogamy made him honest. Even better were the laughs I got from this dude. He was FUN-ny!
Sarah herself was alright. I liked the moment when she tells Pete the reasons for her leaving him. Rachel (Pete's new interest) was an uneven character. I didn't get her vindictive nature at the beach party, or how she used Pete as a weapon of emotional snap-back against Sarah during the dinner scene. I don't know if she is that good of a woman, to be honest.

The supporting cast was pretty damned funny. I laughed at a lot of Jonah Hill's scenes, and Paul Rudd was good at making a simple conversation turn into the definition of awkwardness. Then there's that guy who doesn't know how to please his new wife. Haha.
Even though the drama leaves a little more to be desired, I did get to laugh in even bursts from beginning to end. I loved the "pig for dinner" sequence, that was classic! So were a handful of other lines and/or scenes. "I was going to, but then... I went on living my life." Good stuff.

Sarah Marshall wasn't as good as Virgin or Knocked Up, but delivers serviceable comedy. I didn't roll my eyes from the outlandish stupidity of it all, and I'm thankful for that. To laugh, it's worth watching. For anything more... probably not.

GRADE: B-

Reviewed: 4/19/08