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Forgetting Sarah Marshall Movie Review

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a 2008 romantic comedy film directed by Nicholas Stoller and starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis. It’s a stupendous genre flick.

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“What’s the state fish of Hawaii?

The Humuhumunukunukuapua’a. Yeah, bitch!“

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The film follows Peter who, after his girlfriend dumps him, goes on a vacation and bumps into her, but eventually develops a relationship with another girl. The story is cliched obviously. Yes, it did not end the way I expected it to, but still that entire second half, especially the last third, bored me as the film became overly serious and with many familiar beats.

However, the entire first half is very strong. What took me most by surprise is the film’s humor which is actually very good and surprisingly effective at generating laughs. I laughed more than a couple of times or at least chuckled here and there. The script is so-so, but the comedic situations are actually very well thought out, relatable and with particularly witty dialogue.

Let’s talk about the actors. Kristen Bell is pretty good in a familiar role for her, but she sold those more intimate moments very well. Russell Brand is incredibly annoying which is the point, I guess, but still he really annoyed me and I dislike these types of characters in comedy movies and how they continue to get their unnecessary spotlight.

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Mila Kunis is here actually the most endearing I’ve seen from her so far. She is very likable and actually rather charming. I really liked her romance with Jason Segel’s character and it really worked because it was so well written and it moved appropriately slowly. Bill Hader is pretty good for a small screen time that he got and quite funny whereas Paul Rudd is as cool as usual. Jonah Hill is also in this movie in a pretty solid small role and he could be quite funny in some sequences.

But this is definitely Jason Segel’s movie and he stole the show for sure. I have never been the biggest fan of his, but I was taken aback by his performance here. His Peter is such a relatable, likable person to all the men who watch this movie and thus this romantic comedy is interestingly more suited for males instead of females.

He is very endearing, but also gross at times. And he is continuously funny and sometimes even hilarious. He’s such a fun, funny and endearing guy who’s so far away from a romantic comedy main guy archetype that he’s all the more relatable for it.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is well shot and mostly well paced. Yes, that entire final act was overly serious and not funny or entertaining enough which bothered me as the film was previously hugely entertaining. The runtime is also excessive for this type of movie which needed an hour and a half and two hours is just too much. But at least it’s well paced for the most part, solidly directed by Nicholas Stoller and it held my attention throughout.

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It is produced by Judd Apatow, but isn’t directed by him. It’s directed by Nicholas Stoller who did ‘Storks’ afterwards and he did a good job, but Apatow would have made this movie much better and more in the line of ‘Knocked Up’. But still, the movie is more than solid enough and one of the rare genre films which made me entertained instead of annoyed.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a rare romantic comedy that works and is more entertaining and charming instead of annoying. Yes, it’s familiar in its storyline and particularly boring in its overly serious third act, but the film was previously hugely entertaining, actually really funny at times thanks to a stupendous humor and also frequently quite endearing thanks to a likable, funny turn from Jason Segel.