Saturday night’s HBO movie was Forgetting Sarah Marshall, so I was finally able to sit down and watch it. For some reason I had some reservations about this flick and couldn’t bring myself to rent it. I wish I would have, because it was a pretty damn good movie.
The movie starts off with Peter Bretter, a musician who composes the music for a CSI type crime show, on which the love of his life, Sarah Marshall (the extremely hot Kristen Bell), is the star. But Sarah has found another and breaks up with Peter in a scene best only described as involving some major male frontal nudity. I can only imagine the number of takes it took to get through that.
After weeks of one night stands, Peter decides a trip to Hawaii might help him get over his former love. And by chance, chooses the same resort where Sarah and her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (played by Russell Brand), are staying. This is the second movie where I found Brand funny and he does a great job throughout the movie. The scene where he sings the song “Inside of you” and what he does with the christian couple are laugh out loud funny.
After Peter runs into them in the lobby, Rachel (Mila Kunis), the desk clerk, takes pity on him with a comped $6,000 a night suite where he spends his first day crying on the floor like a woman.
Most will know Rachel as the bitchy, demanding girlfriend Jackie from “That 70′s Show” and as the voice of Meg Griffin from “Family Guy.” And while she has grown into something quite tasty, I still can’t get either character out of my mind when watching her. And she definitely can’t hold a candle to Sarah.
Up to this point, the movie was kind of filled with pointless adolecent crudity, which I like. I am a simpleton like that. But once he meets Rachel, the movie becomes a little more lighthearted. A lot goes on between the two and you can’t help but to finally root for Peter.
I also liked how they portrayed the exgirlfriend in Sarah. Although it is probably more of a testament to the yummy, yummy Kristen Bell. There seemed to be this underlying perception that Sarah was just this egomaniac, narcissistic, I think I am better than you, bitch. And while she didn’t handle the end of the relationship very well, we come to find out in a funny we-see-Peter-from-Sarah’s point of view scene, she did the best she could in an otherwise failing relationship.
As I watched this movie, I found myself relating to it very much as I too have had my heart broken. My still beating heart was ripped out of my chest, shown to me, dropped to the floor, and then repeatedly stepped on with golf shoes. I’m talking the old school ones with metal spikes. And no, I didn’t have weeks of one night stands or head out to Hawaii for an extended vacation. But I did come to realize, like in life, you move on.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a good flick, with some great lines and some laugh out loud scenes. Some familiar regulars show up as well with Jonah Hill from Superbad and Paul Rudd from Role Models, both are quite funny. I definitely recommend this one.