By Steven Loeb
Since the release of 2004’s “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” Judd Apatow has been the undeclared king of comedy and his name has become a brand, slapped onto the poster of any comedy he produces, such as the successful “Knocked Up” and “Superbad,” as well as the less popular “Drillbit Taylor.” For most comedians, their reign at the top is relatively short-lived, usually lasting around a year, two at the most. And yet somehow, Apatow keeps making it work time and time again.
How does he do it? By giving us what we already know, but never giving it to us the same way twice. His latest, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” is what we have come to expect from Apatow movies but never feels stale or tired.
The plot of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” revolves around Peter Bretter, (Jason Segel) whose girlfriend, the titular Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), is the star of a forensic detective television show. You know the type: the two detectives find a body, the macho cop makes a wisecrack and puts on his sunglasses, right before The Who starts playing.
Peter is a musician stuck in a dead-end job, doing the “score” for the show, which basically means playing three ominous chords over and over. When Sarah breaks up with him, he decides to take a vacation to clear his mind.
What follows might have become a cliché dominated, brain-dead movie in anybody else’s hands. Peter and Sarah, along with her new boyfriend, a pompous British rock star named Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), show up at the same Hawaiian resort.
First time director Nicholas Stoller, along with Apatow, here working as producer, and the script, written by Segel, always manage to keep things fresh, even though certain aspects of this movie have been seen before. Honestly, it isn’t a surprise to anyone when Peter falls in love with the beautiful, and somehow available, woman who works at his hotel (Mila Kunis), but there are so many surprising bits here these don’t even matter.
The opening scene shows our hero getting ready for what he thinks will be sexy time with his girlfriend. Standing there, naked to both her and us, Sarah decides to use the opportunity to break his heart.
As Peter is being torn to shreds, vulnerable in every way a human possibly can be, it becomes clear that the Apatow produced comedy-machine is really about the fragile male ego. Men are a sensitive bunch, Apatow tells us, even when they are making fun of each other and punching each other in the testicles.
Take, for example, the relationship between Peter and Brand’s haughty, air-headed Aldous. In most movies, the new boyfriend is a character designed specifically for the audience to hate. He will be a shallow jerk and the girlfriend won’t believe any of it until she sees him yell at a child or something equally unforgivable. In “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” however, Aldous is a fully realized and, yes, likeable character. Of course you hate him just a little; he stole Peter’s love away and he’s everything Peter wishes he could be. But Aldous is still the kind of guy who you want to be friends with. In fact, he spends the majority of the movie trying to befriend Peter, even going out of his way to try to apologize and make amends for stealing his girl.
How many movies would be so bold as to actually allow two male characters, one with an obvious grudge against the other, to come to some sort of understanding instead of having them fight it out and act like morons? Apatow’s movies should be called “Chicken Soup for the Male Soul.”
Mila Kunis (left) joins Jason Segel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” the latest from comedy giant Judd Apatow. In the film, Kunis plays a hotel employee who helps Segel get over his girlfriend. (allmoviephoto.com)