Forgetting Sarah Marshall not so forgettable
By: Brad Canze
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News
The two big issues with this movie are its pacing and the handling of supporting characters. Especially at the beginning, the film struggles to find its tempo.
At first it lingers on Peter's pain and loss, and then it seems to cut its losses midway through a scene to take us immediately to Hawaii. While nothing kills the movie, it certainly could have used a little more time in the editing booth.
The supporting cast, as is usual for an Apatow film, is very strong, yet director Nicholas Stoller does not seem to know what quite to do with them. Aldous, Sarah's superstar boy-toy, teeters in between being an important character and a sidekick. He gets a proportionate amount of screen time, yet is never fully fleshed out in his own right.
Russell Brand manages to work with what he has, however, to make the character both charming and slimy, at times simultaneously.
The rest of the supporting cast has to struggle to be noticed.
The superb Paul Rudd ("Knocked Up") plays a burnt out surfing instructor who is so superfluous that audiences may not even notice Rudd is in the film until after it is over.
On the inverse, Jonah Hill ("Superbad") was entirely overused as a waiter. He pops up at regular intervals, like an incurable venereal disease, with the sole purpose of not being funny.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is a light-hearted romantic comedy grounded in both real-world relationship conflicts and Apatowian gross-out humor. Most people will find something to like here, and although it bears some apparent flaws, it is nonetheless worth the watch.
Three stars out of five.
At first it lingers on Peter's pain and loss, and then it seems to cut its losses midway through a scene to take us immediately to Hawaii. While nothing kills the movie, it certainly could have used a little more time in the editing booth.
The supporting cast, as is usual for an Apatow film, is very strong, yet director Nicholas Stoller does not seem to know what quite to do with them. Aldous, Sarah's superstar boy-toy, teeters in between being an important character and a sidekick. He gets a proportionate amount of screen time, yet is never fully fleshed out in his own right.
Russell Brand manages to work with what he has, however, to make the character both charming and slimy, at times simultaneously.
The rest of the supporting cast has to struggle to be noticed.
The superb Paul Rudd ("Knocked Up") plays a burnt out surfing instructor who is so superfluous that audiences may not even notice Rudd is in the film until after it is over.
On the inverse, Jonah Hill ("Superbad") was entirely overused as a waiter. He pops up at regular intervals, like an incurable venereal disease, with the sole purpose of not being funny.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is a light-hearted romantic comedy grounded in both real-world relationship conflicts and Apatowian gross-out humor. Most people will find something to like here, and although it bears some apparent flaws, it is nonetheless worth the watch.
Three stars out of five.
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