Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a 2008 American romantic comedy film directed by Nicholas Stoller (in his feature directorial debut) and starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Russell Brand.
The story revolves around Peter Bretter, a music composer for a TV show that features his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, in the lead role.
However, his hopes for a relaxing getaway are ruined when he learns that Sarah and her new boyfriend, British rock star Aldous Snow, are staying at the same resort as him.
While hanging out one night, Peter confesses to Rachel that he hates his day job composing TV show music and that his true passion is writing a Dracula puppet comedy-rock opera.
This is exacerbated by the news that Sarah's latest TV show has been canceled and that Aldous is about to embark on a world tour with his band, Infant Sorrow, for 18 months.
He flies back to Los Angeles and after a period of sadness and self-loathing, he begins working on his Dracula puppet opera, A Taste for Love.
[5][6] Regarding the nudity in the film, director Nicholas Stoller added that the first draft of the script called for Peter to get dressed after the breakup, but Apatow thought it would be funnier if the character stayed naked the entire time.
[5] While filming, lead actor Jason Segel told a New York Times interviewer that the naked breakup scenes were based on a real-life experience he had.
[11][5] "Amber" by 311 can be heard in the background during the bar scene after Peter and Rachel's first date, as well as "Playa Azul" from Los Amigos Invisibles.
"Move Your Feet" by Junior Senior is briefly played in the background in the scene at the beginning when they are showing Access Hollywood clips.
The site's critics consensus reads, "With ample laughs and sharp performances, Forgetting Sarah Marshall finds just the right mix of romantic and raunchy comedy.
[24] 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.
"[25] Michael Phillips, also of the Tribune, wrote "this story of one man's rebound has a heart to go with its comic nerve", and "Segel (star of the TV series 'How I Met Your Mother') has what Nicolas Cage and Gene Wilder and a precious handful of other witty actors have: the ability to make egregious humiliation and painful neediness a source of limitless mirth".
[5] Richard Roeper 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.
[26] Other positive reviews come from Entertainment Weekly who gave the film a B+ and applauded "Jason Segel's riff on varieties of male bewilderment,"[27] 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.
The film was released on June 4, 2010, reuniting director Nicholas Stoller and producer Judd Apatow with stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill.
Bell also briefly reprises her role as Sarah Marshall, appearing in a promotion for NBC drama Blind Medicine where she portrays a visually impaired surgeon.