{grate 3/4} It’s official: Judd Apatow doesn’t sleep. Ever. Instead, the
current go-to guy for American comedy gets his rest by endlessly greenlighting
films, jumping from project to project with the frequency of a cheap ham radio.
Movie-geek-Bible www.imdb.com currently tabs five Apatow films somewhere in the
production stages among others on deck (really looking forward to “Untitled
Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler Project” slated for next year), with Apatow filling
shoes as writer, director, producer or executive producer on any given flick.
The man’s got his hands so deep in realistic sentimentality and dick jokes that
you’d expect it’d only be a matter of time before he nosedives and crashes into
the
Hughes (who, incidentally, co-wrote Apatow’s other recent release, “Drillbit
Taylor.” “Walk Hard,” that ill attempt at biopic mockery from last year, seemed
to suggest it, but alas, Apatow strikes his mighty paw back with “Forgetting
Sarah Marshall,” a fine comedy which jettisons much of the past sweetness of
“Knocked Up” and “Superbad,” ups the male full-frontal and spins the year’s
funniest film thus far.
Apatow regular Jason Segal (who penned “Forgetting Sarah
Marshall”) stars as perennial slacker Peter, a composer for a CSI spoof and
recent ex-boyfriend of said show’s lead sex kitten, the titular Sarah Marshall
(Kristen Bell of “Veronica Mars”). After an unexpected breakup, he wanders his
apartment in wanton abandon, aimlessly crying and bedding as many women as
possible to numb the pain.
Of course, it doesn’t help, and with the aid of his
stepbrother Brian (Bill Hader), Peter jumps the glamorous bowels of
Angeles
So does Sarah Marshall, alongside new beau Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), a
remarkably promiscuous British rocker who finds everyway conceivable to combine
his favorite pastimes of music, sex and humanitarianism. Helping Peter cope
with the unexpected run-in is hotel receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis) and
another parade of Apatow’s cavalcade of comedy, including perpetually stoned
Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill of “Superbad” as an employee and Jack McBrayer (“30
Rock”) as a religious newlywed aghast at discovering what a honeymoon actually
entails. The series of subplots featuring Peter and his gang, not to mention
phone conferencing with his stepbrother, are some of the best laughs.
From there you can almost shout out the plot points minutes
before they occur, from Peter’s breakdowns to the inevitable blossoming of his
relationship with feisty firebrand Rachel, extroverted enough to break Peter
out of his emotional shell. They’re paint-by-numbers, but “Forgetting Sarah
Marshall” was never meant to be about narrative originality. Rather, Segal and
director Nicholas Stoller prop up each scene with tremendous character
attention and thousands of zingers.
Take the scene where Rachel and Peter are fatefully coerced
into a dinner date with Sarah and Aldous. The scene plays with incredible
tension; Peter is uncomfortable, both women are secretly vying for his
affection and Aldous just sits back. After the ice is broken and a few dozen
bottles of wine are opened, the dialogue really flies as they debate the
virtues of relationships, Aldous and Sarah clashing over the purpose of sex. As
the conversation develops, we slowly realize Aldous, aloof and deviant in his
own way, is probably the most honest of the bunch. If Segal is good at anything
other than jokes about pearl necklaces and bad shirts, it’s his penchant for
crafting fully flawed but completely relatable characters. Sarah is pompous and
sneaky, but she’s also fragilely human. Aldous may only have sex on his mind,
but he’s unbelievably kind to Peter, even offering McBrayer’s character some
bedroom advice.
This is all a testament to Segal’s screenplay, so well
defined and deliberate. The film itself suffers from moments of choppy editing
— as certain scenes start to work and we begin to get into their groove, we’re
suddenly jolted into another moment and feel as if there’s dialogue we missed.
The theatrical cut looks as if there’s an unrated, extended version waiting for
a DVD release, where sequences are given room to breathe. There’s also a point
where we feel the film has overstayed its welcome, throwing in one too many
little episodes which would make fine extras on the aforementioned DVD, without
taking away from the story, and leaving room in the main feature to tie up more
than a few loose ends.
But these are minor quibbles. The grand finale of “Marshall”
— a lavish musical number performed by muppets — is one of the more absurd and
ridiculously funny ones you have seen in a long time. And it hits the right
note too: All of Peter’s anxiety and curious proclivities are bound to swell up
at one point. That this point is surrounded by an adaptation of the Dracula
legend with
extras makes it all the more amusing, and lifts the film out of cliche hell.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a straight comedy, uneven as it is, that
keeps us tuned in and laughing at our own sympathies.
