Romantic comedies. The bane of every guy’s existence. No self-respecting guy wants to sit through some movie loaded with lovey-dovey, romantic scenes that tries to redeem itself through some “funny” one-liners that we all know only women think are funny. At least that’s what I’ve come to expect from this type of movie. Needless to say, when I went to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall with my girlfriend, Lindsay, I was ready to maybe get a few laughs at some of the jokes throughout the movie, if I was still awake.
Much to my chagrin, I was completely wrong about my expectations for this movie. Although there were still all of the cheesy romantic scenes that guys have come to hate, the movie was surprisingly funny. The storyline follows Peter Bretter (played by Jason Segel), a composer for a hit crime scene TV show starring the one-and only Sarah Marshall (played by Kristen Bell), who just happens to be Peter’s girlfriend. However, after being in the spotlight together for a few years, Sarah Marshall breaks Peter’s heart with a devastating, and hilarious, break-up. When Sarah delivers the news to Peter, he drops his towel, leaving him standing naked, in disbelief. She explains to him that she is “tired” of their relationship, but we find out later in the movie that she has been cheating on him for some time.
After the break-up, Peter sinks into a depression and eventually goes to Hawaii in order to clear his mind. But despite Peter’s attempts to get away from his lost love, he soon discovers that Sarah Marshall is staying at the same hotel as he is, and to top it all off, she’s with her new boyfriend, the crazy musician, Aldous Snow. The plot continues with Peter trying to find new love with one of the hotel employees, Rachel Jansen (played by Mila Kunis) while simultaneously trying to forget Sarah Marshall.
Although the plot is very similar to many other romantic movies (i.e. a bad break-up leads to pursuance of a lost love interest), the cast of this movie was a very surprising and impressive aspect of it. Hilarious actors like Jonah Hill from Superbad and Jason Bateman from Juno and Arrested Development make cameo appearances and keep the audience laughing the whole time. Even obscure characters in the movie like Aldous Snow, played by Russell Brand, are surprisingly funny.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is easily one of the best romantic comedies I’ve ever seen, but it definitely wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen. Although the jokes and the comedy in the movie are very funny, the plot still leaves something to be desired. It seems as though the director had a plan for creating the movie, but ran out of time when finishing it. The ending of the movie feels rushed, and leaves the audience wanting to know more. Overall, I would give this movie an A-, and encourage everyone to go see it.
I would recommend this movie to anyone that likes funny movies and I would definitely recommend it to any guy that wants to take their girlfriend to a movie that isn’t just like most, unimaginative “love” movies. Forgetting Sarah Marshall , I’m sure, will give
anyone a laugh.

Posted by
Tim Fritz