Jason Segel goes full frontal on more than one occasion in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Apparently, in an effort to express vulnerability, this is a substitute for character development.
The vulgar romantic comedy is a sister vehicle from producer Judd Apatow, the recent guardian of the Hollywood comedy genre. It also serves as a talent showcase for Segel, a sitcom actor (How I Met Your Mother) and regular Apatow supporting player. Having written the script, Forgetting Sarah Marshall was Segel's pet project and a chance to stand up against Apatow's go-to scribe and box office champion Seth Rogen.
There are a few genuinely honest and laugh-out-loud moments in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but too often the film feels like an R-rated sitcom that tries too hard to compensate for the missing laugh track.
In the film, Segel plays Peter Bretter, a sluggish music composer who gets dumped by his television actress girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), severing their five-year relationship. He travels alone to a Hawaiian resort to drown his sorrows but coincidentally winds up at the same hotel as Sarah and her new boyfriend, Aldous Snow, an egotistical Brit-rock celebrity.
This contrived setup is particularly stale, but Segel displays a certain charm whether he is crying hysterically, moping around or eating big bowls of Fruit Loops on his couch in sweatpants. However, he can't carry the whole ship on his shoulders.
A barrage of sex jokes, which are predominantly hit-or-miss, and mostly miss, propels the comedy aspect. The audience might enjoy the routine, crude sexual humor, but it mainly serves as dull filler in place of fresher material.
Sporadically there is some very funny material, such as clips from Sarah's television show, which loosely parodies CSI and features a couple of clever cameos.
Apatow cronies and trusted standbys Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd are reduced to bit parts, and the script doesn't provide them with enough zinging one-liners in their limited screen time. Rudd, a spaced-out surfer in this film, should probably tighten his role selection process.
The film doesn't necessarily need to be compared to its superiors, Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, though marketers certainly don't want us to forget them. But Forgetting Sarah Marshall has very little about it that's genuinely original or as honest as those Apatow antecedents, which gently mixed raunchiness with saccharine. The balance isn't maintained here, as the uneven laughs can't sustain the hackneyed, insincere relationship scenes.
The chemistry is so sparse between the actors playing Peter and his ex that their relationship is shown entirely through really quick flashbacks. When Sarah confesses she tried to fix their relationship before its demise, it is hard to believe she ever cared much at all.
Sarah's replacement for Peter, Aldous, is played obnoxiously by Russell Brand, although he becomes more tolerable as the movie progresses.
There's also the step-by-step formulaic storyline, indistinct characterization of Sarah and awkward editing in the beginning, which brings down the film.
Segel, whose range appears rather narrow, doesn't possess certain qualities of a solid leading man, and a tighter screenplay could've helped this. If this were like every other throwaway romantic comedy, it'd be OK that it was unmemorable. Because it boasts the caliber of an Apatow production, it's especially disappointing.
I'd rather just omit Sarah Marshall from my memory and wait for Rogen's next scripted invention, Pineapple Express, in August.
Grade: C-
