Forgetting Sarah Marshall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nicholas Stoller
Produced by	Judd Apatow Shauna Robertson Rodney Rothman
Written by	Jason Segel
Starring	Jason Segel Kristen Bell Mila Kunis Russell Brand Bill Hader Jack McBrayer Maria Thayer
Music by	Lyle Workman
Cinematography	Russ T. Alsobrook
Editing by	William Kerr
Studio	Universal Pictures Apatow Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 18, 2008
Running time	Theatrical cut: 110 min. Unrated cut: 117 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30,000,000
Gross revenue	$105,173,115
Followed by	Get Him to the Greek

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a 2008 American romantic comedy film from Universal Pictures directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Jason Segel. The film was produced by Judd Apatow and stars Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Russell Brand. It was released theatrically on April 18, 2008 in the United States and Canada, and on April 23, 2008 in the United Kingdom. The home video release was on September 30, 2008 in the United States on DVD, 3-disc Unrated Collector's Edition DVD, Blu-ray Disc and as a digital download.

Much of the film was shot at the Turtle Bay Resort, located on the North Shore of the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Filming 4 Release and reception 5 Home Media release 6 Soundtrack 7 Awards and nominations 8 Spin-off 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (April 2009)

Composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) has spent five years adoring his girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), despite living completely in her shadow. He even works as the composer for Sarah's CSI-type crime drama, co-starring William Baldwin (as himself), Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime, a job that dramatically underutilizes his talents. One day, Sarah tells him that she has met someone else, and breaks up with him.

Devastated, Peter starts having sex with random strangers, but he is still unable to overcome his grief. Upon advice from his stepbrother (Bill Hader), he decides to take a trip to Hawaii and stay at a resort Sarah once mentioned; when he goes there, he is confronted by Sarah and her new boyfriend, the narcissistic British rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). The sympathetic receptionist, Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis) bears witness to the awkward meeting and gives him an expensive suite on the condition that he cleans up after himself.

Peter begins his vacation weeping in his suite, drinking from the early morning onwards, and tormenting himself with the reality of Sarah's new life as he bumps into her and Aldous around the resort. However, he does bond with most of the hotel staff, and communicates with his stepbrother via web cam; they encourage him to try to get over Sarah and find somebody new. Inspired, Peter starts hanging out with Rachel. Peter learns that Rachel followed her unfaithful then-boyfriend to Hawaii after dropping out of school, and has not considered going back. Peter confesses that he hates his current job, and his dream is to do a puppet rock opera about Dracula; Rachel is amused, but supportive. In the bathroom of a local bar, Peter sees an old photograph on the wall of the men's room, showing Rachel flashing her breasts; Rachel says that she knows about it and would like it removed, but that the bar owner who put the photos up is violently protective of his "art". After a few nights out, Peter begins to develop feelings for Rachel.

Peter also forms a tentative friendship with Aldous, though Peter becomes angry with him when Aldous tells him Sarah had in fact started sleeping with him a full year before Peter and Sarah had broken up. When Peter confronts Sarah about this, she tells him she did it because he had become lazy and she couldn't do anything to make it work, despite reading self-help books and seeking professional advice.

Sarah gets a call from her agent telling her the show has been canceled. This, as well as noticing Aldous' increasingly intolerable behavior and seeing Peter with Rachel, makes her restless and unsure of whether or not she's over Peter. She accepts a passing invitation by Peter for her and Aldous to join them at their dinner table, an invitation Peter and Aldous expected her to refuse. Their meal is awkward, as Sarah makes subtle insults towards Rachel's dead-end life in Hawaii and Rachel responds by openly kissing Peter in front of Sarah. Peter and both women continue to drink to ease their discomfort, while Aldous goes on to talk about his belief in freely sleeping with any woman he meets as a way to get the most out of life. Sarah is embarrassed and insists that he's joking, but Aldous repeatedly insists that he's serious. This turns Sarah further off of him, and provokes Peter to say that he enjoys getting to know people and forming relationships.

After dinner, Peter takes Rachel back to his hotel room to have sex. Sarah, who is in the room next to his, overhears them and starts to do the same with Aldous. Peter and Rachel hear them and join in the yelling, playing along like it's a game. When Aldous notices Sarah is clearly faking orgasms loudly to try and get a rise out of Peter, he stops the sex and tells her the trip was a mistake, as she's clearly not over Peter. They insult each other and their differences become very clear. In the other room, Peter tells Rachel that he's really enjoyed spending time with her, and she feels the same way.

Peter is now much happier than he was at the beginning of the vacation; his self-confidence has grown and he begins to drink less, participating with more enthusiasm in various hotel activities. In the lobby, Peter encounters Aldous, who has just broken up with Sarah and is heading back to England. He gives Peter a warmer farewell than he did Sarah, after harshly comparing his vacation with her to "a little holiday with Hitler". Peter goes to Sarah's room to console her, but she admits she's still in love with him, and tries to rekindle their romance. After Sarah begins to perform oral sex on him, Peter finds himself unable to continue, because she'd broken his heart and he likes Rachel now. He angrily calls Sarah the devil before storming off.

Feeling he should be honest with Rachel, he tells her what happened. Rachel tells him to leave and never to speak to her again. Peter agrees, but then visits the bar they once frequented, to remove the topless photo of her which she hated. Peter endures a beating from the bar's owner, but retrieves the photo, and wordlessly returns to the hotel to hand it back to Rachel. As he's being consoled by the other staff he befriended, one of them, disgusted by Rachel's apparent insensitivity, shoots her a filthy look. She is affected, but doesn't say anything to Peter.

Peter flies back to the mainland where he goes through a phase of self-loathing, before deciding to be more productive. He exercises more and starts working on his Dracula rock opera, as the cancellation of Crime Scene has left him unemployed. He finishes writing and casting the musical — titled "A Taste for Love" — and sends an invitation for the opening night to Rachel. Initially reluctant, she speaks to a co-worker Peter bonded with on his trip, who convinces her that Peter's feelings for her were genuine; she decides to attend the premiere. The opening night is a huge success, primarily because Peter re-worked his concept into a comedy instead of the tragedy he originally envisioned. Peter meets up with Rachel, who congratulates him and reveals that she is checking out some schools in the area to attend. They go their separate ways, until Rachel decides to go into Peter's dressing room to tell him she missed him. Peter is naked and embarrassed, as he was at the beginning of the movie, but happy as he tells her the same thing and they kiss.

During the credits, a preview is shown for Sarah Marshall's new show with Jason Bateman — a detective crime drama similar to her last one, called Animal Instincts, wherein she plays a detective who is also an animal psychic.

[edit] Cast

• Jason Segel as Peter Bretter
• Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall
• Mila Kunis as Rachel Jansen
• Russell Brand as Aldous Snow
• Bill Hader as Brian Bretter
• Liz Cackowski as Liz Bretter
• Maria Thayer as Wyoma Hodge
• Jack McBrayer as Darald Hodge
• Jonah Hill as Matthew Van Der Wyk
• Paul Rudd as Chuck / Koonu
• Jason Bateman as Animal Instincts Detective
• William Baldwin as Himself / Det. Hunter Rush
• Kristen Wiig as Yoga Instructor (Unrated Version)

[edit] Filming

All filming locations were in the state of Hawaii and in Los Angeles. While filming the movie lead actor Jason Segel told a New York Times interviewer that the naked break up scenes were based on a real life experience he had. The movie was rated R by the MPAA for 'sexual content, language and some graphic nudity'.

[edit] Release and reception

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $17.7 million in 2,798 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office behind The Forbidden Kingdom, and averaging $6,335 per theater in the US and per theater in Canada.^[1] It opened behind other Apatow productions such as Superbad, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Talladega Nights,^[2] but ahead of his recent films Walk Hard^[2] and Drillbit Taylor.^[3]

As of February 2009, Forgetting Sarah Marshall has grossed an estimated total of $105.2 million worldwide; $63.2 million in North America and $42 million in other territories.^[4]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall has received positive reviews from numerous critics. As of January 2009, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 165 reviews - with the consensus being that the film "finds just the right mix of romantic and raunchy comedy."^[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.^[6]

Matt Pais of the Chicago Tribune said it's "the kind of movie you could watch all day because, like a new flame, you can't get enough of its company and are just glad to see where it takes you."^[7] Richard Roeper highly praised the film for its laugh-out-loud moments as well as its worthiness to be an instant classic and went as far as to say he would put it on his list of 50 favorite comedies of all time.^[8]

Other positive reviews come from Entertainment Weekly who gave the film a B+ and applauded "Jason Segel's riff on varieties of male bewilderment,"^[9] and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle', who wrote "Segel's breakthrough movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, deserves to ride the wave of the latest, hottest micro-trend in pictures: the romantic comedy for guys."^[10]

[edit] Home Media release

The DVD and Blu-ray disc was released on September 30, 2008 in a single-disc DVD edition, a three-disc collector's DVD edition, a two-disc Blu-ray edition, and the Ultimate Unrated Comedy Collection containing the collectors' editions of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Knocked Up on either DVD or Blu-ray Disc. The title will also be released on various electronic download services. It was released on DVD in Australia (region 4) on August 20, in a single and 2-Disc Unforgettable Edition and was also recently released on Blu-Ray disc in Australia on November 5.

[edit] Soundtrack

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released	April 15, 2008
Genre	Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Forgetting Sarah Marshall was released on April 15, 2008

1. "Love You Madly" by Cake
2. "We've Got to Do Something" by Infant Sorrow
3. "You Can't Break A Heart and Have It" by­ Black Francis
4. "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying" by­ Belle & Sebastian
5. "More Than Words" by Aloha Sex Juice
6. "Dracula's Lament" by Jason Segel
7. "Inside of You" by Infant Sorrow
8. "Fucking Boyfriend" by The Bird and the Bee
9. "Intensified" by Desmond Dekker
10. "Nothing Compares 2 U" by­ The Coconutz
11. "Baby" by Os Mutantes
12. "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by The Coconutz
13. "A Taste for Love" by Forgetting Sarah Marshall Cast
14. "The Secret Sun" by Jesse Harris
15. "Everybody Hurts" by­ The Coconutz
16. "Animal instincts" by The Transcenders featuring J7 D'Star

The film also featured "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths, though it isn't on the soundtrack. The song can be heard in the background during the scene early in the movie in which Peter's brother deletes all of Peter's photos. "Amber" by 311 can also be heard in the background during the bar after Peter and Rachel's first date - but also isn't on the soundtrack. Arenita playita from Los Amigos Invisibles is also played in one of the bar scenes.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was nominated for five awards for the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, though it did not win any awards. The nominations were:

• Movie, Breakout Female: Kristen Bell
• Movie, Breakout Female: Mila Kunis
• Movie, Breakout Male: Jason Segel
• Movie, Romantic Comedy
• Movie, Actress Comedy: Kristen Bell

On The Comedy Festival Presents: Funniest Movies of the Year 2008 on TBS, Forgetting Sarah Marshall was voted "The Funniest Film of 2008".

[edit] Spin-off

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

• Official website
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall at the Internet Movie Database
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall at Allmovie
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall at Box Office Mojo
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall at Rotten Tomatoes
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall at Metacritic
• Set Visit and Text/Audio Interview with the Stars

Fictional websites created for the film

• Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime show-within-a-film page on NBC website
• Sarah Marshall Fan
• ihatesarahmarshall
• Infant Sorrow at MySpace

Preceded by 21

Box office number-one films of 2008 (UK) April 27

Succeeded by Iron Man

v • d • e Works of Judd Apatow Director The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) · Funny People (2009) Writer Heavyweights (1995) · Celtic Pride (1996) · The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) · Pineapple Express (2008) · Funny People (2009) Producer Heavyweights (1995) · The Cable Guy (1996) · Celtic Pride (1996) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004) · Kicking & Screaming (2005) · The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) · The TV Set (2006) · Knocked Up (2007) · Superbad (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · Drillbit Taylor (2008) · Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) · Step Brothers (2008) · Pineapple Express (2008) · Year One (2009) · Funny People (2009) · Get Him to the Greek (2010) Television The Ben Stiller Show (1992–1993) · The Critic (1994–1995) · The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998) · Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) · Undeclared (2001–2002) Actors Seth Rogen · Jonah Hill · Paul Rudd · Leslie Mann · Jason Segel · Bill Hader · Michael Cera · Russell Brand Directors Adam McKay · Greg Mottola · Jake Kasdan · Steven Brill · Nicholas Stoller · David Gordon Green · Harold Ramis Studios Columbia Pictures · DreamWorks · Universal Studios · 20th Century Fox · Lionsgate · Paramount Pictures Related articles Apatow Productions

v • d • e Russell Brand Presenting RE:Brand (2002)  · Kings of Comedy (2004)  · Big Brother's Big Mouth (2004–2007)  · NME Awards (2006)  · 1 Leicester Square (2006)  · Russell Brand's Got Issues (2006)  · The Russell Brand Show (2006)  · BRIT Awards (2007) · Russell Brand's Ponderland (2007-2008)  · MTV Video Music Awards (2008) Stand Up Tours Shame (2006)  · Only Joking (2007)  · Scandalous (2009) Film St Trinian's (2007)  · Penelope (2008)  · Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)  · Bedtime Stories (2008)  · The Tempest (2009)  · Get Him to the Greek (2010)  · Despicable Me (2010) Radio The Russell Brand Show (2006–2008) Literature My Booky Wook (2007)  · Irons in the Fire (2007)  · Articles of Faith (2008) Related articles Matt Morgan  · 2008 prank telephone calls controversy www.russellbrand.tv/