Forgetting Sarah Marshall

A well performed movie that mixes the perfect amount of crude humor with cute romance. Sure to make you laugh and entertain you for two hours.

rating: B+
stars: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader
genre: comedy/romance
year released: 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall producers have had great success in their previous comedies. So it was no surprise when this film came out and was hilarious. The film gets started when Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) gets dumped by his girlfriend of five years, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). He is really depressed, and tries to get rid of his sick feeling by having one-night stands, but he is to desperate to get back Sarah. His stepbrother, Brian (Bill Hader) tells Peter to head off to Hawaii for a vacation to get his mind off of his situation, but things only get worse when he finds out that Sarah and her new boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) a wacky British singer, are staying at the same hotel. In his state of shock and complete sadness, Peter is befriended by Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis) a hotel employee, who encourages him to start fresh and pursue his dreams. His dreams happen to include writing a musical of Dracula and performing it with puppets. Even while Peter grows closer to Rachel he is still hung up on getting back together with Sarah. Through Peter’s time at the hotel he experiences many strange adventures, which ultimately lead to a strange evening with Sarah where he realizes he no longer has feelings for her and that he wants to be with Rachael. While telling Rachael what happened between them she tells him that she never wants to see him again and that he should go home. Peter, although really upset, goes home and tries to do something with his life. He ends up finishing his musical puppet show of Dracula. He sends an invitation to Rachael for the shows opening night, but he doesn't expect to see her there. To his surprise she comes to the show which was a huge success and the two make up and get back together.

I saw the film for the first time this past weekend with my girlfriend. We both enjoyed it. I could have done without Segel getting fully naked several times, but it was a solid performance for him in his first major starring role. It is outrageously funny but still touching and sweet. With all the other better known comedic actors stuck in for little parts throughout it strengthens the parts of the lead characters. It was a great job of casting even though Segel was not quite the perfect looking guy that would have been matched with Bell, but Kunis was perfect for her role. She is a beautiful young women and was perfect to set Peter back in the right direction. I am not a big fan of Russell Brand, but since his character played the same role that he plays in real life it was a good fit. There were many memorable parts that leave you laughing for days afterwards. Some slow parts didn't hurt the film because of the mix of comedy and romance; this helped to set the very successful plot. The story and the characters continued to develop throughout. I was very happy with how the film ended instead of him getting back together with Sarah he choose the better girl, Rachel. It’s definitely worth checking out or maybe even buying.