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Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Editorial Review

After the disappointment of the Seth Rogen-written, Judd Apatow-produced Drillbit Taylor, the Scat Pack has quickly bounced back into its comfort zone with the raunchy, semi-soulful Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jason Segel, another of Apatow's Freaks and Geeks and Knocked Up protégés, has written himself a leading romantic loser role. Smartly realising the importance of comedic covering fire, he's also created vivid supporting characters, which executive producer Apatow and director Nicholas Stoller have filled with Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Bill Hader and winning new scaternity members Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Russell Brand. The results are hilarious, even as the familiarity makes you wonder how long this comic troupe can keep rollin' the way they do.

The shock of seeing Segel's schlong in the film's first few minutes will have you sputtering into your soft drink. The scene in which Peter and Rachael go at it while a competitive Sarah and Aldous do the same on the other side of a shared bungalow wall is good. And the premise – sex, betrayal, frustration, a carefree party girl and an uptight spouse, all in paradise – reminds you of last year's The Heartbreak Kid, even as you're thankful this is much better than that Farrelly brothers effort.

The familiarity doesn't breed contempt here because Segel won't let it, thanks to a gag-filled script and his willingness to – literally – bare man's soft bits – physically and emotionally – for laughs. Wackier guffaws come from the looser-written rock pig Aldous and Rudd's surfer dude. He has also lucked out tremendously in Mila Kunis, of  That '70s Show; the camera loves her, and she also comes close to that lightning-in-a-bottle fantasy-girl "vibe" of Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary. Bell's Sarah fares less well; given no point of view for much of the movie, she's ultimately marginalised.

Michael Adams