Now who says guys don’t watch chick flicks. In fact there are enough of them to support the emergence of a new genre of movies within chick flicks that I have been sensing lately. The Guy-Chick-Flick or the Gick-Flick. Its different from a regular Guy Flick for the lack of overt action, guns, chase scenes, blood, machoism, sportsman spirit etc. These movies are about a guy’s perspective of a romantic relationship. Oh yes!... you’ll be surprised. Guys do have a perspective to romantic relationships and its not always sexual. Well.. may be almost.. but .. uhmm.. ok.. lets leave that point aside! ;)
"Jude Apatow" seems to be one of the key names in the development of this genre. If you liked ’40 year old virgin’, ’Superbad’ and ’Knocked up’, then you’ll like ’Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ for sure. If you didn’t like them too much, and were left with a feeling of wanting something more out of it, I guess FSM is the one which provides that "something more".
The story is about a TV serial music composer being dumped by his celebrity TV serial actress (called Sarah Marshall) in the begining of the movie. The rest of the movie is about how he goes through the break up phase, wanting to forget her and still not wanting to forget her. Bumping into her, bumping into another girl, getting to know the new guy in her life etc etc.
Simple plot. And hilarious execution. The movie beautifully treads the fine line of creating comedy out of the sadness of a person without ending up mocking anything or belittling anyone, while retaining the genuine feelings that a breakup can and does bring to a person.
You will laugh through the movie for it has some fantastic moments of the trademark "lack of clarity" that a dumped person ("dumpee’) has, about whether to move on, or to wait and try to get the "dumper" back!
The music is a fantastic surprise package that adds to the humor. Yes! it does. For eg. read the following super hilarious lyrics of the song "Inside of you" that is being sung by Sarah Marshall’s new rockstar boy friend in order to serenade her in front of a hawai dinner time crowd. Mind you, this is being sung with all pink romantic seriousness! --
Oh these ancient skies
I’ve had these wandering eyes
but you took me by surprise
when you let me inside of you.
Inside of you, Inside of you
There’s got to be
Some part of me, Inside of you
Inside of you, I could cross this desert plane
Inside of you, I can hear you scream my name
Inside of you, while the stars unfold
I’ve crossed me heart and I’ve crossed the world
And I need you here and I need to be, Inside of you.
Now the flowers bloom
I feel you creep into my room
And if this should be our tune
I’ll die here inside of you.
And the world explodes
I’ve never been down this road
Teach me how to glow
While I’m moving, Inside of you.
Through and through
And through and through
There’s so much more than just a screw, Inside of you.(How Profound!)*
And I was blizzard blind
Felt like I’ve lost me mind
But you’ve treated me so kind
I don’t know what to do.
*I was laughing my head off throughout this song. (I told you. Its a GUY-CHICK-FLICK :))
And then the movie gets brilliantly artistic with a Dracula Puppet Musical. Even this number has a very high entetainment value. The Dracula song wonderfuly captures the deeply moving and humorously distraught emotions of a man dumped by his lover. I love the way it has been sung and well.. here are the lyrics again -
It’s getting kind of hard to believe things are going to be better.
I’ve been drowning too long to believe that the tide’s going to turn.
And I’ve been living too hard to believe things are going to get easier now.
I’m still trying to shake off the pain from the lessons I’ve learned.
And if I see Van Helsing I swear to the Lord I will slay him. AH-HAH-HAH-HAH!
He’d take it from me, but I swear I won’t let it be so. AH-HAH-HAH-HAH!
Blood will run down his face when he is decapitated. AH!
His head on my mantle is how I will let this one know: How much I love you.
Die.
Die.
Die.
I can’t.
The acting is more than believable and the humor is in as good a taste as it can be in a Guy-Chick-Flick. I would go as far to say that even most girls will love it! Except that there are some relatively prolonged male nude scenes (2 to be precise) in the movie and I don’t think they either add to the movie or take away from it in anyway.
Strongly recommended for anyone going through a break up ;)
Recommended for others who just want to watch a good comedy.