At the end of the day, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” fits nicely on any bookshelf with “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”
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Jason Segel is the star and writer of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Judd Apatow serves as producer and Nicholas Stoller is the film´s director. Stoller´s career highlight is serving as co-writer with Apatow for the Jim Carrey vehicle "Fun with Dick and Jane." Segel made a minor name for himself for supporting roles in the film "Knocked Up" and the television show "Freaks and Geeks." Apatow has been on fire since his first two directorial projects "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" became very successful hits. The three unite to collaborate for the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and the motion picture´s marketing has centered mostly around the success of Apatow and his recent string of produced hits that also includes "Superbad," and the Will Ferrell trilogy of "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
Following in the footsteps of other Apatow projects, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" has a strong legacy to uphold. Thankfully, the picture stands nicely with any of the previously mentioned films not starring Will Ferrell. While those movies are mildly entertaining, only the character of Dewey Cox was one that I would ever care to revisit. The raunchier adult comedies produced and directed by Apatow have been stellar and I have been surprised that the director/producer continues to string along movies that have been rated so highly. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" continues that trend with a strong 7.6 rating on the Internet Movie Database and a more impressive score of 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes infamous tomatometer. While I won´t say this film is as entertaining as those directed by Apatow, they are solid entries in the genre.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" stars writer Jason Segel as Peter Bretter, a television composer who has recently been dumped by television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Peter is a slacker who devours large bowls of cereal and would rather spend his days in sweatpants than do something creative. His lethargic ways resulted in the break-up of his longtime girlfriend and Peter soon finds his world crumbling around him as he works on the same show as Sarah and cannot get her out of his mind. His step-brother Brian (Bill Hader) suggests to Peter that he take a vacation in Hawaii to forget his woes and get his groove back. Unfortunately, Peter finds the hotel booked and discovers that Sarah is staying at the same hotel with her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). The hotel clerk Rachel (Mila Kunis) feels bad for Peter and allows him to stay free in a room that is currently not booked.
The film continues as Peter has large bouts where he cries like a girl and cannot get Sarah out of his mind. Aldous attempts to be friendly with Peter, but this causes only more heartbreak for the composer. Slowly Peter makes friends with many of the hotel staff that includes the waiter Matthew (Jonah Hill) and surf instructor Chuck (Paul Rudd). He also finds himself as a mentor of sorts to newlywed Darald (Jack McBrayer) who is struggling to break out of his religious upbringing to fulfill the sexual appetite of his new wife Wyoma (Maria Thayer). As Peter continues to drown his sorrows with alcohol and any company he can find he begins to build a friendly relationship with the receptionist Rachel and finds her affections to be a cure for the heartbreak suffered from Sarah.
Plenty of mishaps and uncomfortable situations arise before the final credits roll. Sarah suffers relationship problems with the sexual promiscuous Aldous and discovers jealousy as she witnesses Rachel and Peter´s budding romance unfold before her eyes. She attempts to reconcile with Peter, but ultimately fails. However, this attempt costs Peter the interest of Rachel. Peter leaves Hawaii feeling better that is able to move beyond Sarah and forget her, but saddened with how things turned out between him and Rachel. Sarah, Peter, Aldous and Rachel all find themselves continuing on with their lives , but Peter finds solace in completing a puppet based musical about the eternal love of Dracula and from this rebirth of his creative talent he finds himself a new life and a surprise ending.
I laughed continually throughout the film and found myself hoping that Peter would pull himself out of his funk, grow up and become a man again. There were moments where I found myself not entirely liking Peter because of his boorish flaws and inability to move beyond sorrow, but I soon understood the purpose of what Segel was trying to do with the character. I completely disliked Kristen Bell´s character and simply wanted to see her suffer some tropical mishap that would get her out of the picture for the lovely Mila Kunis to get more screen time. Brand brings a genuine sense of an oversexed rock star that was far from being the bad guy and the comedian stole nearly every scene in which he appeared. There was heart; there were laughs and there were good performances that made "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" a film I could not possibly dislike.
The beauty of a Judd Apatow film is the ability to intertwine gross-out and adolescent humor with a deep and involved story that has heart behind its sexual-fused jokes. The filmmaker is on a holy mission to include as much penis as possible in his films and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" finds its opportunities to make good on his promise. This is an example of how Apatow has moved beyond gratuitous female nudity and is trying to carve a niche for himself with the stories he tells. Some may find his embracing of full frontal male nudity to be troublesome, but it is a symbol of the more adult nature of Apatow´s films and a statement that he is not afraid to shake up taboo and buck the system. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" has plenty of humor that some would consider disturbing, but it never delves into being childish. There is a style to Apatow´s films that is unmistakable and this is another fine entry from the filmmaker.
Video:
Universal has released "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" onto Blu-ray with a strong looking 1.85:1 framed widescreen transfer of the film that uses the VC-1 codec and delivers 1080p resolution. All numbers aside, the film looks very good and while it may not be reference quality, it is an above average attempt from Universal. Taking place on a tropical paradise, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" nicely showcases the beautiful Hawaiian scenery in a manner second only to television´s best show "Lost." One scene that stands out in particular is the scene where Rachel jumps into the water and Peter is left hanging out on a cliff. It looked absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray at high definition. Detail is very strong throughout the film with many intricate features standing out nicely. Colors are perfectly saturated and black levels are outstanding. The source materials used were pristine and I cannot think of any complaints with the film.
Audio:
The audio provided for "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is the familiar English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that should be very familiar to those that have purchased other Universal titles on Blu-ray. The studio has stood steadfast behind DTS-HD since making the jump from HD-DVD and done great work with the sound format. Regular definition DTS 5.1 mixes are provided for French and Spanish language tracks as well as subtitles for all three languages. While the imagery of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" benefits from the exotic filming location, the sound suffers from the same problem that so many comedies do; sound design just doesn´t allow too much energy beyond the front channels. The film is technically proficient, but aside from the musical numbers and a few nice ambient moments during the surfing sequences, the sound mix of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" does not show too much energy. Thankfully, dialogue is clear.
Extras:
Universal has rolled out all of the stops for the Blu-ray release of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." The disc comes packaged with an attractive and shiny slip case for the blue disc casing, which holds the two discs. The film itself is provided with both the original Theatrical Version (1 hr. 51 mins.) and the unrated Extended Version (1 hr. 58 mins.). Switching between the versions is as simple as clicking the "Go To…" menu item on the bottom of the interactive menu. The unrated footage was more moments with Jason Segel and nothing overly racy. Beyond providing two versions of the film to watch, Universal has included a DVD disc containing the Digital Copy of the film. This allows users to create a copy of the film for portable devices such as the Microsoft Zune or Apple iPod or to watch the film on either a Mac or PC. I support this type of bonus feature and feel that anything the studios can do to combat digital distribution is a good thing. I want to have my films in a format I can get my grubby fingers on.
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