Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
“How you served five years under her, I don’t know. You deserve a medal, or a holiday, or at least a cuddle from somebody.” – Aldous Snow
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
Written by: Jason Segel
Starring: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader
Forgetting Sarah Marshall sees an ensemble cast of world-class comedians and Saturday Night Live alumni head to Hawaii to make the Judd Apatow-produced comedy. And boy-oh-boy is it funny. While it doesn’t receive as much recognition as other Apatow comedies such as The 40 Year Old Virgin or Step Brothers, I’d argue this sits in that upper echelon. If you like to laugh and haven’t watched this movie, stop reading this review now and go watch it.
The on-location film stars Jason Segel (who also wrote the film) as Peter Bretter, an everyman who gets dumped by his famous actress girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Bell). In order to ‘forget’ her (get it?), he travels to a resort in Hawaii and befriends some of the staff, including receptionist Rachel (Kunis). However, problems arise when he runs into Sarah at the same resort with her new boyfriend, famous popstar Aldous Snow (Brand).
Like all other Apatow films, the magic of this movie is a great script combined with an amazing all-star cast of comedians who can ad-lib to make scenes even funnier. It’s a simple concept – man trying to get over a breakup attempts his own ‘eat-pray-love’ trip to ‘find himself’ – but Segel manages to turn the mundane into something hilarious in each scene. As mentioned, much of this is due to the ability of the cast to improvise – the director Stoller claiming that the dialogue is “70 percent scripted, 30 percent improvised”. This is only possible because the cast is so ridiculously talented, and almost all had prior comedy chops. While they were all well known actors at the time (except for Brand, who catapulted to fame after this film), over half the cast (including those playing minor roles) are now recognised as A-list stars - making this one of those fun ‘salary cap’ movies, where it would probably be too expensive nowadays to recast the same people.
Bell - as the spiteful narcissistic star - and Kunis - as the loveable local - play off each other perfectly as leading ladies, Brand is probably the most charismatic human alive and his British wit/charm/insanity jump off the screen, and Segel is great as the glue-guy. The highlight of the film is when these four go out for dinner and are trying to one-up each other for fifteen minutes. You can also count on a barrage of hilarious one-liners from the supporting cast of Hill, Rudd, Hader, McBrayer and Cackowski, who leave no empty scenes.
Another final note about the movie: great location/setting. Don't think I’ve ever disliked a movie set at a sunny Hawaiian beach resort (Lilo and Stitch, 50 First Dates and The Perfect Getaway completing this niche Mount Rushmore). Segel leverages this location to perfection, as Peter having a horrible time in an otherwise delightful place is just…funny (highlighted by him yelling “Having a wedding in Hawaii – real original!” at a wedding party).
All in all, this is an R-rated naughties comedy that holds up really well over a decade later. Unlike other comedies from the time, like The Hangover and Wedding Crashers, that rely too much on physical comedy or spend a large chunk of the script calling each other “fags”, this seems way more light-hearted, without babying the audience. It’s aged well, contains so many great quotes, and will continue to be one of my favourite comedies ever.
If you like any other Apatow film, or Saturday Night Live, or even just have a decent sense of humour, you will love this comedy classic.
Rating: 8.5/10