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'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'

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BY JOHN ANDERSON | Special to Newsday

April 18, 2008

Is there something inherently funny about naked men? Not men whose pride has been wounded. Or whose manhood has been impugned. Whose illusions have been stomped on with golf shoes. Who have been stripped of every shred of self-respect and decency. We mean men with no pants on.

If you're shocked at the question, or wondering why we're even asking, you have no business being at "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Naked men have been the eventuality of the entire school of movie comedy directed, produced, aided or abetted by Judd Apatow. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Superbad," "Talladega Nights." They're all about pain and humiliation (and eventual comeuppances).

That Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) abandons the sanctuary of a bath towel upon realizing that the title character is about to dump his suddenly naked behind in the first few minutes of the movie is not even surprising. Nor, to answer the first question, really all that funny.

Which is not to say that "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (produced by Apatow, ably directed by Nicholas Stoller) doesn't have many moments of levity, laughter, tears and joy. Just that the law of diminishing returns is starting to kick in on this whole comedic policy.

Segel, who was the most urbane of Seth Rogen's slacker sidekicks in "Knocked Up" (and wrote the "Sarah Marshall" script), here plays a guy about whom no one has any real complaints, and that's part of the problem. Even if she's not very nice, and she's not, you can understand why television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) would kick her longtime, unambitious, in-a-rut, TV-composer boyfriend to the curb in favor of a quintessential bad-boy rocker like Aldous Snow (the hilarious Russell Brand). Peter is sympathetic. He also tries our patience.

This is especially true when he decides to go to Oahu, and Sarah and Aldous have beaten him there. Why doesn't he leave? Because the movie would be over. Only the human decency of his hottie hotel clerk Rachel (Mila Kunis) keeps the situation from becoming excruciating, which is saying a lot, considering the hero was naked and humiliated before the movie was 10 minutes old. Kunis is not just Peter's savior, but the saving grace of a comedy that is really a series of sketches, a few of which sparkle, and most of which you'll soon forget.

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL (R). Sensitive, heartbroken guy tries to get over the worthless wench who tore his heart out and threw it under a bus. Good-natured. With Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand. Written by Jason Segel. Directed by Nicholas Stoller. 1:52 (adult content, language, nudity). At area theaters.