2008 Woodie Awards
Funny, insightful 'Marshall'
Rob Scheer
Arts | 4/17/08
A romantic comedy that's genuinely hilarious, as well as seeming to come from a real place of heartbreak and experience, Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" has been touted as the next film out of the Judd Apatow canon, though the real acclaim should go to its star and screenwriter, Jason Segel. He's crafted a film that's as raunchy as its pedigree would indicate, but is nicely balanced with a sweetness and sincerity that works. I would recommend it simply for being very, very funny, and consistently so, but it wins extra points for actually making an effort at character development and subtle insight into romantic agony.
Our hero, underachiever Peter Bretter (Segel) is a composer for the TV show starring his gorgeous actress girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell). Though perfectly content with living in the background - he's mostly known as the guy who holds her purse at premieres - he's taken aback one day when Sarah announces that she's dumping him. Initially dealing with the break-up by having bouts of random sex and crying non-stop, Peter eventually heeds his brother's (Bill Hader) advice to take a trip. Naturally, he picks Hawaii, as it's the place he and Sarah always talked about going to. Unfortunately for Peter, Sarah's had the same idea, and in a bit of contrivance, they end up staying in the same hotel. Making matters worse, Sarah is on holiday with her new instant-rebound boyfriend, British lothario rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), and Peter seems to run into them wherever he goes. Luckily, our protagonist begins to click with the hotel receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis) as he interacts with various characters around the island and trying to set the film's title into motion.
The set-pieces are worthy of their build-ups, but the quick, bizarre gags (the prepping of a pig for luau) and little character moments (Peter's cosmopolitan-induced impersonations of the "Sex & the City" gals) are just as funny. The raunchy one-liners are predictably quotable, ranging from the bluntly stupid (a character ponders about a redhead, "I wonder if the carpet matches her pubes") to the clever (upon being told he doesn't need to put his "P in a V" to get over Sarah, Peter responds "No, I need to B my L on somebody's T's").
Our hero, underachiever Peter Bretter (Segel) is a composer for the TV show starring his gorgeous actress girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell). Though perfectly content with living in the background - he's mostly known as the guy who holds her purse at premieres - he's taken aback one day when Sarah announces that she's dumping him. Initially dealing with the break-up by having bouts of random sex and crying non-stop, Peter eventually heeds his brother's (Bill Hader) advice to take a trip. Naturally, he picks Hawaii, as it's the place he and Sarah always talked about going to. Unfortunately for Peter, Sarah's had the same idea, and in a bit of contrivance, they end up staying in the same hotel. Making matters worse, Sarah is on holiday with her new instant-rebound boyfriend, British lothario rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), and Peter seems to run into them wherever he goes. Luckily, our protagonist begins to click with the hotel receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis) as he interacts with various characters around the island and trying to set the film's title into motion.
The set-pieces are worthy of their build-ups, but the quick, bizarre gags (the prepping of a pig for luau) and little character moments (Peter's cosmopolitan-induced impersonations of the "Sex & the City" gals) are just as funny. The raunchy one-liners are predictably quotable, ranging from the bluntly stupid (a character ponders about a redhead, "I wonder if the carpet matches her pubes") to the clever (upon being told he doesn't need to put his "P in a V" to get over Sarah, Peter responds "No, I need to B my L on somebody's T's").
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