Producer Judd Apatow has tapped into an interesting formula. His trademarked combination of raunchy humor, full frontal male nudity and rom com sentimentality has proven to be a potent elixir in past hits like Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin. His latest confection, a laugh-out-loud funny break-up movie called Forgetting Sarah Marshall mines similar territory with hilarious results.
When we first meet Peter Bretter (Freaks and Geeks’s Jason Segel) he’s a struggling musician, paying the bills by scoring a CSI rip-off called Crime Scene. He’s also dating the star of the show Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars) who turns his life upside down when she dumps him for an outlandish pop star named Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).
To mend his broken heart he books a weekend trip to Hawaii and checks into an upmarket ocean resort. There’s only one problem— Sarah and her new flame are also staying there. Peter is saved from going over the brink by Rachael (Mila Kunis from That 70s Show) a sympathetic desk clerk also nursing a broken heart. She provides much needed emotional support and an attractive shoulder to cry on.
Will Peter’s heart heal? Will he ever finish his Dracula rock opera featuring life size vampire puppets?
I think you probably know the answers to those questions already and you haven’t even seen the movie, but Forgetting Sarah Marshall isn’t as much about the sit-comish situation as it is about the characters in the story. Bretter is completely likeable as the everyman heartsick composer. He’s equal parts vulnerability, charm and goofiness. It’s a winning combo that gets the audience on side immediately and keeps them there throughout. Kunis is warm and funny as the damaged desk clerk, British comedian Russell Brand comes very close to stealing the show as the dense rock star and Jonah Hill (Superbad) is creepily funny as the star struck hotel waiter.
Like Knocked Up and others in the Apatow cannon Forgetting Sarah Marshall serves up standard movie situations—the ex-lovers staying at the same hotel—but tweaks them with an audacious mix of outrageous vulgarity and full-on, full-Monty male nudity and sweet sentimentality that makes them a fun R-rated night out.
There was a time when we wouldn’t be able to discuss a movie with the title Knocked Up in polite company. It wasn’t that long ago that censors wouldn’t allow Lucille Ball to even utter the word “pregnant” on television, let alone use language that wouldn’t be out of place at a trucker’s convention.
Times certainly have changed.
The provocatively titled Knocked Up gives us an r-rated look at an unlikely couple going through the ups and downs of an unplanned pregnancy. As the title suggests, it’s rude, kinda crude but it’s also the funniest movie so far this year.
Alison (Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl) is a pretty twenty-something celebrating her new job as an E! Network correspondent. On a wild night out she meets her polar opposite in Ben (Seth Rogen), an unemployed slacker whose biggest ambition is to run his own website called fleshofthestars.com.
They dance and flirt and many drinks later they end up back at her house. The next morning after their booze fueled one-night-stand he has trouble remembering what happened while she would rather forget it.
Cut to eight weeks later. While interviewing James Franco about Spider-Man 3 on the E! set Alison gets morning sickness. She’s pregnant, and is sure that Ben is the father.
Turns out Ben isn’t such a bad guy once you get past the unemployment, drug habit and penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He steps up and wants to take responsibility. Trouble is, he doesn’t really know how.
From this point on Knocked Up slides into a more conventional farce about the difficulties of raising a family and fear of commitment but is still peppered with loads of laughs. Writer / director Judd (40 Year Old Virgin) Apatow has managed to find the delicate balance between the traditional romantic comedy elements of the story and the bawdy frat boy humor.
There is no one scene here as memorable as the chest waxing scene in Apatow’s last film, The 40 Year Old Virgin—Steve Carell’s shouts of “Kelly Clarkson!” when his hairy chest is stripped of its fur is the stuff of classic comedy—but minute for minute Knocked Up has more laughs than Virgin. It’s worth the price of admission alone to see Ryan Seacrest, mercilessly parodying himself, have a meltdown on the E! set.
Great White North audiences will find much to enjoy here. Knocked Up may be the most Canadian film released so far this year. Seth Rogen is from British Columbia, and in the movie plays a guy from… BC! Fellow Canuck Jay Baruchel plays one of his stoner roommates; their frat house is covered in Canadian flags and posters and even Cirque du Soleil makes an appearance.
Knocked Up’s story may be a little frayed around the edges, but Apatow with the help of Rogen’s chubby charm and a great supporting cast (including the hilarious Paul Rudd), keep the laughs fresh.
“This is 40,” the new film from one-man comedy machine Judd Apatow, contains all the elements you expect from a midlife comedy—Viagra jokes, the ogling of younger women, cholesterol, and the perils of familiarity—and a few things you don’t, like a supporting role from semi-forgotten 70s rocker Graham Parker, a careful examination of Meghan Fox’s breasts and some genuine emotion.
The movie takes place in the week between Pete and Debbie’s (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprising their roles from “Knocked Up”) fortieth birthdays. Using his patented mix of humor, heart and vulgarity, the director explores the couple’s life as they approach the milestone.
It soon becomes clear that age isn’t the only issue in their lives. Although Debbie constantly lies about how old she is, larger problems include constantly warring kids (Maude and Iris Apatow)—“I can handle a nightmare,” the younger one says to her sister. “You’re a nightmare everyday for me.”—an empty bank account made worse by a freeloading father (Albert Brooks), an embezzling employee and relationship doubts triggered by Debbie’s loaded question, “If I hadn’t gotten pregnant fourteen years ago, would we still be together?”
Let’s not forget, however, that this is a comedy, so mixed into this study of midlife disappointment are some keenly honed and very funny observations. It’s a blend of heart and humor, frequently in the same scene, and often in the same sentence.
Pete, who runs a failing record company—he turned down Arcade Fire and is now pinning his hopes on a revival of Graham Parker—tends to speak in music metaphors. “We’re like Simon and Garfunkle,” he says to Debbie, “and you turned me into Garfunkle.” It’s a funny line, delivered well, but also a loaded one that places his unhappiness front and center and it is that kind of writing and performance that makes you laugh and cringe at the same time.
This is an ensemble comedy of sorts, featuring Apatow Repertory Company regulars like Chris O’Dowd (who brightens every scene he appears in), Jason Segel, Lena Dunham (he produces her HBO show “Girls”) and Melissa McCarthy, and some newcomers to the fold like Brooks, John Lithgow and Graham Parker (who gamely allows himself to be the butt of jokes) but the center of the film is the work of Rudd and Mann.
Rudd brings his comic chops and likeability but there’s also a deep undercurrent of resentment and dissatisfaction running through the character of Pete that elevates him from stock character to believable person.
Mann also has a way with a line but far from being the stereotypical wife character she steals the movie with a performance that is by times vulnerable—a scene with a hockey player who doesn’t realize she is married is funny but framed with real emotion—then fierce—watch her smack down a kid who’s been taunting her daughter on line—and then sensitive—same scene with the kid. It’s multifaceted work that steals most of the scenes she appears in.
“This is 40” is a tad long and episodic—like snapshots from Pete and Debbie’s life—and loses some steam in its final twenty minutes, but its keenly observed look at a strained marriage has rewards that far outweigh the extended running time.
