Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008)

[Joe Buck]

I rented this film and did not find it very funny or very memorable. A harmless romp, but not the "funniest movie I've ever seen" as the clearly unstable Richard Roper exclaimed on the back of the DVD package.

[domino harvey]

Though this film is better than any of these examples, I remember that during his review for the third American Pie film, Roeper talked about how the audience grew with the characters and cared about them, as though from the trilogy of penis jokes and plastic teens sprang forth a fountain of insight and depth. I think he said more or less the same thing about the Austin Powers trilogy too. The point is, this man doesn't know comedy, he is comedy.

[Antoine Doinel]

Hey domino, interesting take on the film, but I do have a question: do you think Segel's character should've forgiven Kirsten Bell's cheating and worked it out? Bell's character doesn't win any maturity points for cheating rather than confronting the problem directly and trying to work it out. The reason I praised Kunis' character, is that the moment she sees that Segel clearly is not over Bell, she backs out of the relationship so he can deal with his shit. Routinely throughout the film, Kunis is direct in a way that few female characters are (and it's usually that indirectness that causes infuriating "misunderstandings" in any standard rom com).

[domino harvey]

Well, I think the whole "I dropped out of college to follow a boyfriend" aspect of Kunis' character, while very accurate, also keyed her into being just one of a sea of not quite grown-ups congregating in Hawaii. And that's an intentional character motif in the film and well-stocked, but the "change" at the end is unearned by the characters as presented.

I briefly thought Kunis might have been more than just the standard rom com savior gal for about three or four minutes, roughly from Segel's admission up to the point where Segel rescued her photo from the bathroom wall. At that point, it was obvious she was going to come after him, but I thought her initial resistance to his apology was much truer, and I would have also respected the film had Segel ended with no one as much (maybe more) than if he'd ended with Bell.

I say Bell's cheating was a mature act in the sense that she sought out a change when things weren't working. That she sought out change in a pretty horrible way is part of what is supposed to make her the "wrong one" in the film, but in a sense, even at the end of the film, that she's the one with a steady job tells me she was the right and steady bet and Segel blew it. I mean, let's face facts, that last show would be renewed She didn't get to live her dream (She's not in her film career), but she's not sitting around unemployed like Segel, dreaming up underground puppet shows that play to audiences of sixty people... Kunis' "I'm looking at schools" is so indefinite and weak that I can't help but doubt her and thus, while I think her character is of a certain type that exists in real life, it's hard for me to see it as a good ending. Now, I think it's the ending the main character deserves due to his maturity level, but my problem is that the film presents Kunis as the superior choice to Bell in general, which I just cannot agree with.

[Antoine Doinel]

Ah, ok. I guess it's down a matter of perspective. I mean, Segel is sitting around "doing nothing" because he's depressed about the end of his relationship, which I would think is fairly normal behavior. Bell, even though the show is canceled, is able to move on, because she initiated the breakup, hence having the upper hand (oy, I sound like a Seinfeld episode) thus being able to have a relationship etc etc etc. I also would've respected Bell had she ended the relationship first, before hooking up with the VD machine of Russell Brand (again, I guess it's perspective), instead of making sure she had someone to go to when she ended the relationship (which I think is the coward's way out -- a much stronger female character, would've ended the relationship even if it meant having to be alone). But I will agree that a better movie would've ended with Segel and Kunis single.

[mfunk9786]

Wow... domino. Wow. That is easily more than I ever wanted to see this movie analyzed. You're right on the money, as you often are - but I think I'm going to go take one or twenty sleeping pills and lie down.

I think I allow myself to turn off my brain just enough to get out of films like this unscathed. I'm starting to wonder if I'm on the same intellectual wavelength as Richard Roeper.