Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Probably the most conventional offering yet from the Apatow colossus, Forgetting Sarah Marshall has its share of balls-out funny moments—quite literally, in the famous opening sequence, when composer Peter (Segel, who also wrote the script) suffers repeated towel malfunctions during a breakup with his eponymous TV-star girlfriend (Bell). Peter gets away from it all by jetting to Sarah’s favorite vacation spot in Hawaii—rebound romance with a hotel receptionist (Kunis) can’t be far behind. Too much time in the sun breeds laziness, and Sarah Marshall has a structural laxness that befits its setting, as if no one got around to trimming the outtakes. Some of the randomness sticks: Rudd’s terminally blitzed surfing instructor is a riot, and it’s difficult to avoid a spit-take during a scene from Peter’s Dracula rock opera. Other curveballs merely feel random. Regarding the material that didn’t work, Stoller should have taken Rudd’s character’s advice: “When life gives you lemons, just fuck the lemons and bail.

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