The best comedy of the year: smart humor in a story with substance.

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2008)

In "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" 'How I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel plays Peter Bretter, a man-child musician who's entire existence is overshadowed by his successful actress girlfriend, Sarah Marshall. She's egocentric, possessive and emotionally unavailable but naive Peter somehow oversees that, and when she dumps him codependent Peter's heart is left to shreds. Enter Brian, his brother-in-law who aids Peter in his quest to 'forget' Sarah Marshall. Well, he tries anyway. Little does he know when he advices Peter to take a trip to Hawaï, Sarah's there too. And with a new boyfriend from hell, bold rocker Aldous Snow (portrayed by British comedian Russell Brand)...
The plot's a lot more than just a clothe hanger for jokes, in this film the interactions between the characters really captured my interest. Admittatly the usual generic jokes that come with a situation like this do occur, the plot takes surprising twists which open up doors for original humor and engrossing scenes. It's sometimes tough seeing Peter get so easily manipulated and his feelings toyed with by his ex. It's though to let go, even if you know it's the right thing to do, so I'm sure many of us understand the fiber of the story.
The movie's not at all that dramatic as I may have led you to believe though, it's genuinely funny in conventional ways as well as weird ways. Plenty of absurd figures come marching by, Paul Rudd plays a totally 'cool' surf instructor who seems to have a very loose connection with reality. In one scene he 'philosophises' with Peter out in the water: 'if you get bitten by a shark, you're not just gonna give up surfing, are you?' Peter, who doesn't really get him and neither does anyone else, replies (dry): '...yeah, probably'. Then there's the puppet lovin' bartender, the prude Christian on his honeymoon who gets a lot of laughs with one liners such as 'Let me just say that if God was a city planner he would not put a playground next to a sewage system!' and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few memorable side characters.
During the second half, the laughs are dialed down a bit to make room for some pivotal scenes that are nicely handled by first time screenwriter Jason Segel. Despite Segel's involvement, FSM still screams Judd Apatow and the formula might get old soon if he doesn't move some stuff around in his next feature. It's hard to rank up FSM with 'Knocked Up', 'Superbad' or 'the 40 Year Old Virgin', most likely it depends from person to person because they all contain a lot of quality material. Neither of them is very easy on it's main protagonist, which is a nice change from the rest of comedies with substance but it does leave that sweet/sour taste in our mouths. All things considered FSM is the sweetest story out of the 4 and the most conventional, it'll not rank the highest in the esteem of hardcore Apatow fans but the direct opposite is true for those who aren't big fans of the man and his colleagues. FSM will appeal to a lot of folks and it'll hopefully end up on a lot of 'favorite comedy' short lists by the end of the year, I know it'll be on mine!