Spring Break
Forget 'Sarah Marshall'-Apatow's latest majorly disappoints
The latest Judd Apatow movie follows the story of a man who goes on vacation and runs into the woman who just dumped him.
by Marianna Faynshteyn
Staff Writer
Arts | 4/29/08
Posted online at 12:07 AM EST on 4/29/08
Call me a snob. Maybe I am. I've spent the last couple of semesters dissecting films and screenplays-the pitfalls of majoring in something you love-and maybe it finally got to me.
Then again, I'm not so big of a snob that a film with a Judd Apatow stamp attached to it doesn't excite me. I looked forward to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I saw sneak peeks and interviews and was delighted by the prospect of seeing the "multi-dimensional script" by first-time screenwriter and leading man Jason Segal.
Unfortunately, the film was hardly what its hopeful cast and eager producers made it out to be. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the story of how Peter (Segal), a little-known TV-show composer, gets dumped by his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell), the star of Crime Scene, and inadvertently ends up at the same Hawaiian resort where she and her new beau, British rocker Aldous Snow, happen to be vacationing.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall has all the potential for hilarity, but the film goes in pretty much every direction but the one it intends. Jason Segal provides several full frontals, a funny and unexpected tactic-the first time. But that's the philosophy that the film goes by the whole two hours: try, try, again and again and exhaustingly again. The characters are one-dimensional, despite the contrary assertions provided in previews and clips by its stars. Segal even claims that the script was hand-crafted to the actors playing the roles after a series of improvisational takes. Somehow that doesn't explain the film's over-reliance on sex or the number of long scenes that put out only a single mediocre joke.
Often, the film seems as though it approaches a fork in the plot and can't decide where it's heading. The romantic angle is irritating with the occasional swells of music during tender moments drawing more question marks than sappy smiles. And to top it off, it isn't even effective. With or without a love interest, there's hardly a story arc, and there aren't enough funny moments to compensate for the film's predictability.
Then again, I'm not so big of a snob that a film with a Judd Apatow stamp attached to it doesn't excite me. I looked forward to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I saw sneak peeks and interviews and was delighted by the prospect of seeing the "multi-dimensional script" by first-time screenwriter and leading man Jason Segal.
Unfortunately, the film was hardly what its hopeful cast and eager producers made it out to be. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the story of how Peter (Segal), a little-known TV-show composer, gets dumped by his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell), the star of Crime Scene, and inadvertently ends up at the same Hawaiian resort where she and her new beau, British rocker Aldous Snow, happen to be vacationing.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall has all the potential for hilarity, but the film goes in pretty much every direction but the one it intends. Jason Segal provides several full frontals, a funny and unexpected tactic-the first time. But that's the philosophy that the film goes by the whole two hours: try, try, again and again and exhaustingly again. The characters are one-dimensional, despite the contrary assertions provided in previews and clips by its stars. Segal even claims that the script was hand-crafted to the actors playing the roles after a series of improvisational takes. Somehow that doesn't explain the film's over-reliance on sex or the number of long scenes that put out only a single mediocre joke.
Often, the film seems as though it approaches a fork in the plot and can't decide where it's heading. The romantic angle is irritating with the occasional swells of music during tender moments drawing more question marks than sappy smiles. And to top it off, it isn't even effective. With or without a love interest, there's hardly a story arc, and there aren't enough funny moments to compensate for the film's predictability.
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