Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is the music composer for a hit crime melodrama airing on NBC whose girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell), just so happens to be the program's sexy star. When she arrives at his apartment unannounced, at first he thinks he’s in for a sexily pleasant surprise. Instead his world gets rocked in the opposite direction, the popular actress revealing that, not only is she breaking up with him, she’s also been having a torrid affair with hip British rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).

Jason Segel and Kristin Bell in Universal Pictures' Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Deciding he just needs to get away before he succumbs to oceans of grief and does something stupid, Peter heads to Hawaii to clear his head only to discover, to his embarrassed horror, Sarah and Aldous are staying in the very same hotel. Determined to make the best of it, he strikes up a winsome friendship with the resort's beguiling receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis). But even as their relationship is blossoming, the heartbroken musician just can’t get his old flame out of his head and, if he doesn’t snap out of it and come to his senses fast, he just might lose the wondrous new thing standing in front of him.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a distinctly uncomforting relationship comedy full of smarts, surprises and laughs. The problem is, you have to wade through an awful lot of ponderous meanderings going just about nowhere to find them. Don’t get me wrong, when this Judd Apatow production (directed by first-timer Nicholas Stoller) gets things right it does so brilliantly. I just wish it didn’t take so much effort and time to actually get to those moments, and for as much respect and admiration I have for the nuts and bolts of this particular enterprise the final construction unfortunately leaves one heck of a lot to be desired.

The main problem is with Segel. One of the star’s of the popular program “How I Met Your Mother,” the actor seems like an appealing enough guy. He’s got an easygoing charm that’s perfectly fine. I just didn’t feel like it was necessary to spend nearly a full two hours with him. His consistently flat line readings kind of drove me insane, and after a while I couldn’t help but start to wonder what two intelligent and sexy women like Sarah and Rachel would ever find so dynamically appealing about the man.

It doesn’t help matters that Segel the writer doesn’t do Segel the star any favors. Not only does he make Peter a virtually unlikable bore, he places him in situations that feel like extended “Saturday Night Live” skits desperately searching for a punchline. Random characters of all shapes and sizes wander through picture almost aimlessly, the hero forced to interact with them in ways bordering on the insane. The first half of the film is particularly difficult, and if a nagging voice in the back of my head hadn’t kept yelping at me that it would all get better soon I probably would have just got up and left.

Lo and behold, that little voice just happened to be right, and just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse with a brazenly confident suddenness the darn thing twisted on a dime and actually morphed into something pretty darn close to fantastic. The jokes started connecting, the girls finally got more to do and Segel starts allowing Peter to become a fully functional human being with a beating heart instead of a six-foot punching bag just waiting to get pummeled. I was almost in shock, and before I knew it a movie I was on the verge of despising was now in the second half getting me to loudly giggle in sudden shocking bursts of schoolgirl-like laughter.

I have to say, the main reason for this is the blossoming of Brand. On the surface, he’s just another in a long line of romantic comedy boy-toy stereotypes. But as the movie progresses, the actor makes him come to life, bobbing and weaving in ways both unusual and uproarious. The guy is an outright revelation, and it wasn’t long before I was sitting on giddy pins and needles anticipating what the heck was going to come out of the man’s snidely sensuous mouth next. 

There are some other great moments here as well, not the least of which is one of the more uncomfortably humorous dinner table chats I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness. The film is also unabashedly profane, thoroughly reveling in its R-rated shenanigans but doing so in a way that never comes across as indecent or gross. I just wish it didn’t take so much effort to get to all this good stuff brewing within this feature’s coils, Forgetting Sarah Marshall easier to respect for its nakedly fearless audacity then it is to remember for any of its character-driven comedic merits.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4) 

Additional Links:

-  Forgetting Sarah Marshall Theatrical Trailer