Apatow: King of Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2008)

Jason Segal is a relatively no-name actor whose biggest role so far has been playing a character on the TV show "How I Met Your Mother." He's now managed to write his own screenplay, get it sold, and actually get the lead role on top of all that, despite being a no-name. What I'm saying is, it's damn good to be a friend of Judd Apatow. And so far, nepotism seems to be paying off for everyone. No winging it here, Apatow knows some really funny dudes. Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Steve Carell, and now add Segal to that list with "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", a laugh-out-loud funny movie about breaking up.
He stars as Peter Bretter, a struggling musician whose life is pretty lame, except for the one bright spot of having a gorgeous television star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Peter continuously finds himself pushed to the background while she lives the perfect life and still, he puts her up on a pedestal. So he is shocked when she dumps him. He takes it hard and after a terrible time of trying to get back on the horse and an on-the-job nervous breakdown, he decides to take a trip to the Oahu beach resort to clear his head. Only horribly enough, Sarah is also vacationing there with her British-rocker boyfriend (Russell Brand). Just as things look there worst, a resort employee named Rachel (Mila Kunis) takes him out for a good time, leading to a flirtation that tempts him to regain some confidence.
Sex and nudity gags are the movie's bread and butter (in fact the film starts off with one of the funniest male nude scenes I've ever seen) and it takes some really good pot-shots at murder mystery shows, but like "Knocked Up" and "Superbad", the real charm is in the personal journey of the main character(s). A break-up can leave you a sad, pathetic, obsessive shell of a human being and Segal mines the material with a good eye for comedy but also sends Peter on a path toward not only new love, but toward his own self respect. That Peter and Sarah wind up reluctantly together again is another comedic highlight, especially during an awkward dinner scene and an even more awkward sex scene afterwards. The romance also works. Segal does a nice job of playing emotionally scarred and timid while Kunis counteracts it well with energetic positivity. Not to mention she is still ridiculously hot, as is Kristen Bell, who makes Sarah a little more than just a bitchy overachiever. And Brand is hilarious, not just in the heavy British accent he puts on but also in the laid-back and self-involved way he portrays the character. And Jonah Hill pops up every once and a while as a creepy waiter. He's a funny guy, I wonder if he has a screenplay in him as well.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is another Apatow movie about learning how to grow up and deal with life's curveballs, and oddly enough, there are a lot more crude gags in that process than you might think. What's interesting and ultimately winning about these movies is how flawlessly they manage to combine the two.