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Forgetting Sarah Marshall
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a 2008 American romantic comedy film from Universal Pictures directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Jason Segel. The film was produced by Judd Apatow and stars Segel, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand and Mila Kunis. It was released April 18, 2008 in the United States and Canada, and on April 23, 2008 in the United Kingdom.
Much of the film was filmed and takes place at the Turtle Bay Resort, located on the North Shore of the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Plot
Composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) has spent five years adoring his girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). He has had success for composing the theme song and score of her highly-rated CSI-type crime drama show Crime Scene. While writing a puppet Dracula musical called A Taste for Love, he's the guy left holding her purse in paparazzi photos and accidentally omitted from acceptance award speeches. Things take a twist when she breaks up with him right after he assumes she wants to come over for sex, and he suddenly finds himself alone. Trying to get over her, he has sex with various women, but besides being terrified of getting an STD, all this does is increase his stress and heartache. After an on-the-job nervous breakdown, he sees that not having Sarah may just ruin his life.
At the suggestion of his step-brother Bryan (Bill Hader), Peter takes an impulsive trip to Hawaii to clear his head, and is given a free room by the sympathetic receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis), on condition that he clean up after himself. At Turtle Bay Resort, he is confronted by his worst nightmare: Sarah and her narcissistic new British-rocker boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), are staying at his hotel. In a twist of irony, Snow tries and eventually manages to make friends with Peter, while Sarah initially and wrongly suspects he's stalking her. As he torments himself with the reality of Sarah's new life, he finds relief when talking with Rachel, whose laid-back approach tempts him to rejoin the world. Although they bond and get along well, she is also reluctant to move on, because she too has been recovering from a recent heartbreak. Peter becomes friends with many of the hotel staffers and, along with Snow, also offers advice to a devout newlywed named Darald (Jack McBrayer) who is having trouble with satisfying his new wife's (Maria Thayer) sexual appetite. Things take a turn for the worse when Peter is asked to vacate his room and given a room next door to Sarah and Aldous.
Throughout the film, Peter has flashbacks which reveal the negative aspects of his old relationship, which he mostly ignored or was completely oblivious to, while Sarah remembers many of the good things she hadn't appreciated before. It is made known that she cheated on him with Aldous for about a year without him knowing, but after they break up, she now realizes that she wants him back, even more so when her relationship with Aldous fizzles and he leaves her, giving Peter a warmer farewell than Sarah. Her desperation increases when her show is canceled and she fears her name being forgotten, while wishing to keep the ounce of dignity many actresses like her don't have. In the end, when Peter comes to comfort her for her loss, she begs him to take her back. Though he is initially reluctant, they have a brief physical encounter that Peter cuts short, realizing he cannot get an erection because he is not attracted to her anymore. Deciding that she is not worth it if she didn't love him before, he tells her off, calling her the Devil as he leaves. Peter then decides to stay true to Rachel and divulges what happened between him and Sarah moments before, but it backfires – an enraged Rachel tells him to never speak to her again. Before he leaves the hotel, Peter wordlessly hands Rachel a topless photo of herself; it had been put in a local bar's wall collage by her nasty ex-boyfriend and Peter endured a beating from the bar's tough-guy owner to get the photo back to Rachel. When Peter returns home he finally finishes writing his vampire rock opera. On its opening night, Rachel shows up, having been convinced by all the staff members Peter befriended at the hotel, and in the end both reconcile their differences and move on to further their relationship.
A post-credits scene shows that Sarah later managed to get a job similar to her previous character on another crime drama called Animal Instincts.
Cast
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Forgetting Sarah Marshall was released on April 15, 2008
- "Love You Madly" by Cake
- "We've Got to Do Something" by Infant Sorrow
- "You Can't Break A Heart And Have It" by Frank Black
- "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying" by Belle & Sebastian
- "More Than Words" by Aloha Sex Juice
- "Dracula's Lament" by Jason Segel
- "Inside of You" by Infant Sorrow
- "Fucking Boyfriend" by The Bird & The Bee
- "Intensified" by Desmond Dekker
- "Nothing Compares 2 U" by The Coconutz
- "Baby" by Os Mutantes
- "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by The Coconutz
- "A Taste for Love" by The Coconutz
- "Secret Sun" by Jesse Harris
- "Everybody Hurts" by The Coconutz
- "Animal instincts" by The Transcenders
Nudity
In accordance with Judd Apatow's 2007 announcement "I'm gonna get a penis in every movie I do from now on"[1] the film shows full-frontal nudity of Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) three times in the beginning and once at the end of the film (albeit for only a fraction of a second each time).
Critical reception
Forgetting Sarah Marshall has received generally positive reviews from numerous critics. As of April 23, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 132 reviews - with the consensus being that the film "finds just the right mix of romantic and raunchy comedy."[2] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.[3]
Matt Pais of the Chicago Tribune said it's "the kind of movie you could watch all day because, like a new flame, you can't get enough of its company and are just glad to see where it takes you."[4] Richard Roeper highly praised the film for its laugh-out-loud moments as well as its worthiness to be an instant classic and went as far as to say he would put it on his list of 50 favorite comedies. [5]
Other positive reviews come from Entertainment Weekly who gave the film a B+ and applauded "Jason Segel's riff on varieties of male bewilderment,"[6] and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle', who wrote "Segel's breakthrough movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, deserves to ride the wave of the latest, hottest micro-trend in pictures: the romantic comedy for guys."[7]
Box office performance
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $17.7 million in 2,798 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office behind The Forbidden Kingdom, and averaging $6,335 per theater.[8] It opened behind other Apatow productions such as Superbad, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Talladega Nights[9], but ahead of his recent films Walk Hard[9] and Drillbit Taylor.[10]
As of July 9, 2008, Forgetting Sarah Marshall has grossed an estimated total of $96.7 million worldwide - $62.9 million in North America and $33.81 million in other territories.[11]
DVD release
The DVD will be released September 30, 2008 in two single-disc editions, a two-disc collector's edition, and the 6-disc Ultimate Unrated Comedy Collection containing the 2-disc editions of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Knocked Up.
- Single-disc features
- Two-disc collector's edition
All single-disc features including:
- "Dracula's Lament" mixed version
- Puppet Break-Up
- Sex-o-Rama
- Drunk-o-Rama
- Russell Brand: Aldous Snow
- The Letter U
- Crime Scene
- Sarah's New Show - Alts
- Video diaries
- Cinemax Final Cut - Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Awards/nominations
Forgetting Sarah Marshall has been nominated for 5 awards for the 2008 Teen Choice Awards. The nominations are:
- Movie, Breakout Female: Kristen Bell
- Movie, Breakout Female: Mila Kunis
- Movie, Breakout Male: Jason Segel
- Movie, Romantic Comedy
- Movie, Actress Comedy: Kristen Bell
References
External links
- Fictional websites created for the film
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Works of Judd Apatow |
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