Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Directed Nicholas Stoller. Written by Jason Segel. Release Date: 18 April 2008. Country of Production: United States. Key Cast: Jason Segel (Peter Bretter), Kristen Bell (Sarah Marshall), Mila Kunis (Rachel Jansen), Russell Brand (Aldous Snow).Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in its trailer, appeared to me to be a completely miss-able kind of spin-off from the recent series of Seth Rogen and/or Evan Goldberg comedies. I think, indeed, many people saw the trailer, thought to themselves, "Is that the one dude from Knocked Up?" and then never saw it. Don't underestimate this movie.
I won't lie to you, I didn't die laughing. It had some strong moments, an overall humorous tone, and a mildly believable plot line that rarely distracted. It wasn't great, but it was really good. The reason I'm taking the time to write about this is that I feel the style of humor Jason Segel has implemented in his film needs to be supported. This is a very funny movie that derives the majority of its humor from clever dialogue and solid performances. The movie is only occasionally outrageous, and then usually to good effect.
With one exception, in my opinion. Apparently someone recently decided that since it was technically acceptable to display the penis in a rated R movie, absolutely everybody should. In this case the nudity was funny in the context of a relationship-ending fight, but it remains only an issue of shock-value that the audience actually sees Segel's penis. I don't get it. What is inherently funny about the male genitals? Does every man carry a joke in his pants? The general concept of nudity, again, can be funny in context, but I don't get the idea of the penis as the punchline.
Other than that, I simply want to give credit to Segel for attempting to move comedic film back toward a reliance on writing and believable performance and away from the current Will Ferrell-esque trend of resorting to complete inanity.
2 comments:
I heard that Jason Segel took his mom to the premier, and that after seeing her son's hanglow, she bolted out of the theater, in tears.
The "penis display" joke was also used in Walk Hard during the orgy scene. I believe the humor really is all in the shock-value. Male genitalia isn't normally shown in films (straight porn or otherwise), and the presence of the penis on a big screen is definitely surprising.
I mean, it's technically just the screen version of the penis game from Waiting, right?
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