There is no Forgetting, Sarah Marshall

Screenwriter and star Jason Segel is a long time member of the Judd Apatow crew, having started out on Apatow’s television shows as the memorable Nick Andoplois of Freaks and Geeks and a year later as frequent guest star Eric on Undeclared. Apatow has been on a roll with writing, directing, and producing one hit comedy film after another. Although Segel was never fortunate enough to star in any of these films he was quoted stating since Judd wasn’t writing him any lead roles he decided to do it himself. Which is how Forgetting Sarah Marshall came to be and Apatow happily produced it. Even though Segel wrote this film, his character can’t help but remind Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared fans of his previous Nick and Eric characters. He even shares a scene with Undeclared-on-screen-girlfriend Lizzie, actress Carla Gallo.

For this being Segel’s writing debut he’s done impressively well at the box office for his opening weekend coming in second place bringing in $17.3 million. It really isn’t a surprise to me because he was able to bring unique qualities to his romantic comedy. Typically romantic comedies are told by the female’s point of view and can be seen as more like chick flicks that guys only see because their girlfriends drag them to see it. This film is an exception because there is plenty of male humor such as Peter (Segel) being dumped by his girlfriend while naked, which was inspired by one of Segel’s real life break ups although he had found it hilarious rather than devastating because of his nakedness. Also Segel had real life aspirations of trying to write a Dracula puppets musical, which makes for some very comical scenes in this film.

Another different technique Segel used in this film was creating equal characters. No one character is seen as the villain but rather they are all equal characters with different perspectives on love and relationships, who have all made mistakes in the past. In the beginning of the film we may assume that Peter is the good guy because he is our protagonist and Sarah (Kristen Bell - amazing actress now on Heroes but was previously on the amazing show Veronica Mars) is the bad guy because we see her from Peter’s perspective, but as the film continues her character causes Peter and us, the audience, to realize that she has her reasons and Peter has made mistakes as well. I believe this gives the comedy a more realistic ground to be stabilized on, providing stronger meaning than more typical outlandish comedies.

~Shaboomer~