Movie Review
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2008
Starring: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Bill Hader
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller

Comedy films have been on serious decline over the years. It has become too easy to make a crude comedy that relies on juvenile humour. Another major approach that has been prevalent the last couple of years have been tongue-in-cheek comedies that people watch without laughing once but still contend that the film was hilarious after viewing. Nicholas Stoller’s Forgetting Sarah Marashall may be confused for a film that might fall in the first category but the script is way smarter than its appearance gives it credit for. Each joke is well crafted and any time somebody acts stupid in the film, there are repercussions. Considering the pedigree of this film, a lot could have gone wrong. Luckily, mostly everything went right.

Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) writes music for his girlfriend Sarah Marshall’s (Kristen Bell) hit TV show. While she’s a major sex symbol in Hollywood, he’s tucked away behind the scenes. Sarah confronts Peter one day and tells him that she’s leaving him. Depressed about the dissolution of the relationship, Peter decides to go to Hawaii to take his mind off of things. Unknown to Peter at the time, Sarah is also in Hawaii at the same resort as him with her new main squeeze, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Peter is determined to finish his vacation but with Sarah constantly nearby, hi-jinks follows.

One of the great things about this comedy is that anytime there is a joke that people would find disgusting, it’s immediately followed up by someone admonish the offending character. This is quite refreshing considering that most of the recent comedies tend to celebrate crude humor and the boorish characters are the heroes. The funniest bits in the movie are when someone is chewing someone else out for going over the line of funny and disgusting. One scene that comes to mind is where Peter is talking to his brother Brian (Bill Hader) through a video call and Brian’s wife (Liz Cackowski) is on the call while Peter is making crude jokes until she realizes what’s going on and gets angry at Peter. Scenes like this allows for the writing to get a little silly with a short leash. While there is plenty of profanity and nudity, it isn’t used primarily to get cheap laughs. Every joke is delivered well and the laughs are a result of a well-developed punchline.

Another remarkable thing about the movie is that the characters don’t seem to overshadow each other. The secondary characters complement the main characters very well. Some of the funniest moments in the film come from the interaction between Peter and one of the minor characters in the film. Some characters are only on screen for a minute or two but they seem to have better character development than many main characters of most comedies today. It feels as if the film is a team effort and everyone cared about the project.

If there’s one knock against the film it’s that it’s predictable. You know where the film is going almost immediately. That’s not so bad when a film relies heavily on its charm but this is a R-rated comedy and it tends to hurt some of the joke because of its paint-by-numbers setup. It doesn’t kill the film but it does certainly could have been better if you didn’t see the delivery coming for some scenes or jokes from a mile away.

Stoller’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a weird film to talk about because as good a film as it is, there’s only so much you can say about it. Essentially all you need to know that it’s a funny film and that’ll you enjoy it immensely. The writing is sharp and the actors play their roles well. This is an outstanding comedy that stands above much of the filth taking up room in the theatres and DVD shelves today.

☆☆☆☆