To my dismay, Forgetting Sarah Marshall beings with all the college student movies clichés. A boy comically brushes his teeth in the mirror. Then he grabs a whole box of cereal and eats it in his grossly decorated apartment. The montage of lazy, filthy boy continues. We see him in sweat pants flopping from one lazy position on the couch to another. He tries to exercise but can’t find the motivation. Then his lovely girlfriend calls and says she’ll be home early. Boy must clean the house.
When Sarah Marshall arrives Peter steps out of the shower completely naked to greet her only to realize that she is breaking up with him. Instead of being awkward and vulnerable comedy, the scene drowns in insincerity. Every real moment is traded for the laugh. The director seems to celebrate his cleverness yet at every step falls flat to cheap jokes.
I almost walked out of the theater. Fortunately, the movie gets a lot better. Peter tries to escape his misery by going on vacation to a lovely spot that Sarah and he frequently talked about in Hawaii. Only it turns out that Sarah had the same idea. To his horror, Sarah is at the same hotel with her flippant pop singer boyfriend Aldous Snow- a recipe for cheap jokes. For example, Peter stalks them back to their room and interrupts their kiss. He tells his stepbrother on the phone that he thinks her ruined Sarah’s day. Cut to Sarah having orgasmic sex with Aldous. There are jokes about Peter sobbing in his suite like an old woman, jokes where Peter has to sit at a table looking at Sarah, jokes about Peter drinking all the time.
Only when the movie stops the cheap jokes and relies on sincere drama does it work. Peter meets a wonderful girl named Rachel who seems to be the perfect girl. But the movie understands what it is like to get over an ex. It takes time, even if you meet someone else. Rachel does help Peter to have fun, but when Peter sees Sarah again, he cries. Sarah then begins to realize how great Peter was only when Rachel threatens to take him away. These are the remnants of a real relationship. Sarah realizes that her pop-star boyfriend is not as special as Peter. Peter realizes that Sarah was great but maybe she didn’t always understand him.
There are some fantastic moments. When Sarah’s TV show is canceled Aldous cannot understand her fear about the future. Peter walks by Sarah and recognizes her pain. Peter is able to comfort her, a reminder of the relationship they once had. At another point, Sarah confesses to Rachel how pretty Rachel is. This shows both jealousy and real respect for Rachel as a person who is able to help her ex in his time of need. At an awkward dinner where Sarah accepts a courteous invitation to dine with Rachel and Peter, Peter and Aldous bond over laughing at Sarah’s ridiculous role in a movie (where cell-phones kill people). Rachel seems to bond with Sarah, respecting her role as a movie star. While surfing, Aldous comes up to Peter and gives him a respectful compliment about his music. Peter is grateful and feels that Aldous really understood what he was trying to do with his music. At another point, Sarah confesses how hard she tried to make the relationship work, but that Peter was too lazy to notice. This is the first point where he seems to understand what went wrong.
The movie evolves into a pretty realistic look at break-ups, the struggles with getting over a past love. It is clear that the relationship is over for these two, but that in no way means it is easy. The rebound relationships aren’t perfect. Peter has to evolve before he can make things work with Rachel, who genuinely seems a perfect match.
The comedy does not work for the most part. The Dracula musical seems to rely on a Dracula musical with puppets being inherently funny. No thought or effort is put in to developing the joke. The movie works best with its realistic depiction of relationships and breakups and fortunately there are a few funny moments that make this entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised with the way the movie turned out.
~Kristen Gorlitz