“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” was a little too exposed. Its ad campaign: a little too exposed. Its main character’s emotional state: overexposed. The male lead’s genitalia: wildly overexposed.
But maybe that’s what makes this movie work. Sure, there are times when you just want to jump through the screen and tell the main character to “man up” and stop crying about everything. But the vast majority of his pitiable weeping, which does fill at least 30 minutes of the movie, is genuinely funny.
And he does have plenty of reason to weep. Within five minutes the audience is forced to watch as Peter Bretter, played by Jason Segel, who also wrote the screenplay, gets dumped by his famous and beautiful girlfriend Sarah Marshall, played by Kristen Bell of “Veronica Mars” semi-fame. Oh, and he’s completely naked during the whole scene. Of course, you would know this if you’ve seen a trailer for the movie and, as mentioned before, you almost certainly have with the ridiculous amount of hype over this film. But it still is a funny scene, if only because full frontal nudity on a man is both hilarious and rare in a major studio film.

After getting dumped, Peter decides that he needs a vacation and travels to Hawaii to get over his girlfriend, who is of course there with her new boyfriend, a ridiculous and initially annoying British rock star named Aldous Snow, played by Russell Brand. Instead of finding a new resort, Peter decides to stay and mope around and meet all the various kooky hotel staff members.
And they are kooky. The hotel staff, which comprises almost all of the characters in the film, does a good job keeping the mood funny and light throughout the film. There is the usual Judd Apatow crew, most notably Jonah Hill as an embarrassingly obsessive fan of Aldous Snow, and Paul Rudd as a stoned over-the-hill surfer. But there are also less famous actors who made the film enjoyable in small bit parts like the waiters at the hotel.
And it’s a good thing these small cast players were there, because at some point in the movie, the main actors begin to annoy. It happens first with Kristen Bell, who starts off enjoyable enough but quickly becomes so annoying and whiny that you wish she would just get it over with and leave the resort. Barring a single emotional scene where she discusses her problems with Peter, she is unfailingly dull. Next is Peter himself who, as mentioned before, gets more and more annoying until you’re left without a hero from the central broken relationship. The only exception is Brand, who starts out as a stupid and cliché rock star and transforms into one of the only genuinely likeable characters. Oh, and Mila Kunis doesn’t really annoy but that’s only because she gets a pretty small amount of screen time and looks gorgeous the whole time.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is enjoyable, amusing and well worth the price of admission. But it’s also the least funny Apatow movie yet.
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