Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Peter (Jason Segel) and Sarah (Kristen Bell) have been together for five years. Sarah is an actress, starring in a TV crime drama, playing a homicide detective. Peter - a composer - writes the music for the show.

When Sarah reveals that she has been seeing someone else for some time, Peter is understandably heartbroken.

On the advice of his step brother Brian (Bill Hader), he begins sleeping around with as many women as possible to try and find the one for him.

Rachel (Mila Kunis) and Peter (Jason Segel).

When this doesn't seem to work, he decides to go to Hawaii for a week's holiday to take his mind off of Sarah. However. When he arrives there, he finds that Sarah and her new boyfriend - singer Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) - are staying in the same hotel.

While there he befriends Rachel (Mila Kunis) who works on the front desk at the hotel and the two of them become very close.

Of course, it isn't long before Peter and Sarah try to rekindle their relationship. But things don't go quite as planned.

Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) and Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).

The screenplay, written by Segel, is quite clever. While a lot of the jokes are crude in nature, the similarities and contrasts between Sarah and Rachel are well-constructed and well-executed. The script follows general romantic comedy tropes, so much of the plot will not come as a surprise to many viewers.

There is not a lot of scoring in this film from composer Lyle Workman. However, there are a lot of songs, seemingly written by Peter, who is also in his spare time writing a rock opera based on the story of Dracula to be performed with puppets.

The cinematography, by Russ T. Alsobrook, is fairly standard for a film of this genre, and doesn’t feature anything particularly distinctive, or memorable, or even worth mentioning.

Brian (Bill Hader).

It should come as no surprise that the performances of the cast are well suited to this film. Apart from the leads previously mentioned, there is also a great supporting cast, including Jonah Hill as a waiter at the hotel, Paul Rudd as a surfing instructor, and Kristen Wiig as a yoga instructor.

Director Nicholas Stoller has made a reasonable enough film here, one that while I would be quite happy to watch again, is certainly not the best film I have ever seen, or even the best film I have seen in this genre.

6 out of 10.