The title gets it right; forget Sarah Marshall and ring in Rachel Jansen as played by Mila Kunis. The title may be all about the blonde, but the sexy Ukrainian born Kunis has proven she has grown out of her sitcom days as Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show” and outshines the entire cast of this mildly funny, and overall mediocre comedy.
The premise is simple. Peter (Jason Segal) dates hot actress Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Sarah breaks up with Peter. Peter goes to Hawaii to drown his sorrows and bumps into Sarah with her new boyfriend. Sex, jokes, laughing, crying, etc. ensue. It’s all a matter of how funny the jokes are and how well conceived the emotion is. On both accounts this film scores about a “C”.
Writer/star Jason Segal is making the leap from the role of Marshall on “How I Met Your Mother” and supporting actor in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up and trying to make a name for himself. It works on some level, the name Apatow is sure to bring this film some juice, but the lackluster trailers and overall potty humor is running a bit thin.
A lot has been made over the fact that you see Segal’s dick not once, twice or even three times. Sure, it’s only two scenes, but the first one gives you all variations including from the front, profile and even a tip-tacular rear shot. I wondered what the big deal was, a dick’s a dick right? Well, here’s the problem. The dick shot is basically there for the folks that laugh at dicks, “Hey! It’s a dick! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” If you sit next to this idiot slug them. Is a dick funny? Is seeing a dick funny? I’ll admit if I am walking down the street and some dude’s drawers drop and out comes the poor fella’s lap taffy I may laugh. But in this case it’s just a dick, it’s not funny. It really is nothing, and that kind of humor works on the elementary school playground, not in Hollywood comedies.
As for my love for Kunis as I mentioned earlier, it comes from an overall fear that she would slowly fade into the background much like her “’70s Show” counterpart Wilmer Valderrama. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Kunis plays the role with a level of maturity that asks for an audience’s respect. You feel for her character and you connect with her; something you really don’t do with any of the other characters.
Russell Brand plays Sarah Marshall’s boy toy that she left Peter for. Quite honestly he’s your comedy relief and he is funny maybe half the time as he plays a European rock star/sexual predator. He’s funny, but he doesn’t manage to pull the film out of its mediocrity.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is an average film. It doesn’t hit with the belly laughs yet the relationship between Peter and Rachel is believable and interesting. It works as a date night flick, but it won’t make a lasting impression on many audiences.
