You may soon forget the above-average farce “Sarah Marshall,” but you can’t escape its producer.
On the Judd Apatow scale of movie humor, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” lies somewhere over his recent Owen Wilson flop”Drillbit Taylor” but well under last year’s instant classics “Knocked Up” and “Superbad.”
The impresario who specializes in raunchy comedies with hip pop culture references and incongruently heartfelt endings has become so prolific that he might soon wear out his welcome. That doesn’t stop Apatow, though. He recruits one of his less-known troupe regulars, Jason Segel, as screenwriter and unlikely star of another of his intermittently hilarious, mostly sexist and always warped wish-fulfillment fantasies on the relationship between dorky, ugly guys and the accomplished, gorgeous girls who mysteriously adore them.
In today’s high-concept variation on the theme, not one but two such hotties sniff around the paunchy, lazy and agoraphobic music composer Peter Bretter (Segel). TV’s blonde du jour Kristen Bell plays the title’s heartbreaker, Sarah; Mila Kunis (“That ’70s Show”) plays the one he romances on the rebound from her.
The humor comes out of the absurdity of a nightmare scenario: What if the girlfriend who suddenly dumps you ends up at the same vacation spot where you’ve gone to lick your wounds over her? That’s what happens to poor, lovesick Peter. To make matters worse for him — but more amusing for the audience — Sarah is basking in her Hawaiian glory there with the most pretentious and obnoxious new boyfriend imaginable.
Russell Brand practically steals the movie in that role, as the smarmy rocker god Aldous Snow. Apatow perennials Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill (“Superbad”) also appear as lesser jesters. But protagonist Segel is the movie’s clown-in-chief. He fearlessly serves up his own lumpy naked body as a sight gag and his hapless character’s entrenched misery as the fodder for nearly every joke.
Though almost as many attempts at wit miss as hit here, director Nicholas Stoller takes good advantage of the scenic tropical setting and some offbeat casting. For example, he shrewdly features character actorBill Hader as an erotically challenged honeymooner. If only “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” were as consistent in its madcap hilarity as Hader is. But for a fun night out at the movies, it will do.
‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’
Three Stars
» Starring: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis
» Director: Nicholas Stoller
» Rated R for sexual content, language and some graphic nudity
» Running time: 111 minutes
