Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall


I was thinking the other day that I still needed to write a review of Getting Over Allison. It's weird, because I never even thought about that movie when I was watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall so how could I have mixed them up? Now that I've thought about it a bit, the movies are somewhat similar. The males leads in both movies (played by Ben Foster and Jason Segel, respectively) are regular, somewhat nerdy guys who are dumped by their popular exes (Melissa Sagemiller and Kristen Bell, respectively). Both girls start dating musicians (Shane West, Russell Brand, respectively) with uhm.. interesting accents. Both movies feature musical sequences and Mila Kunis. However, she is not Ben Foster's love interest in Get Over It (Getting Over Allison was the movie's working title).

It is rather unfair to Jason Segel to compare the two though. While Get Over It is a teen movie and a bit over the top, FSM is a comedy with a heart. I felt Segel's pain, both thanks to his well written script and sensitive performance. If this guy isn't on his way to become a big star, I give up on Hollywood. He deserves a Golden Globe nod for this. However, it was Russell Brand who was the star of this movie. He stole every scene he was in. Supporting roles from Mila Kunis, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd were great too. It's interesting to note that Sarah Marshall herself, Kristen Bell, was actually the weakest link here. I've never seen Bell be so bland before. I wonder if she's actually capable of carrying a movie (I've blocked the awful Pulse from my memory, thank you very much).

One thing I really liked about the movie is that it shows two sides of the relationship. While mostly the focus is on Segel's character Peter, you also get to find out why things didn't work out for Sarah and her motivation isn't as shallow as you might expect. Overall, FSM is an enjoyable movie. If you liked Knocked Up, I'm sure you will like this movie as well.

Well played, Mr. Segel! A 4/5.

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