Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The popular array of Frat Pack movies that populated the mid-aughts can blur together as time marches on. “Earmuffs,” “Catalina Wine Mixer,” “Milk was a bad choice,” many of these immensely quotable classics were released over a decade ago. Most of these comedies have aged surprisingly well. You’re not turning the channel when you stumble across Ron Burgundy and his sweet, sweet mustache boasting about leather-bound books and apartments that smell of rich mahogany. These films will always hold a special place in my heart, but lost in the deluge of the brotastic film festival of the aughts is the fact that Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which is now streaming on HBO GO, is an exceptional romantic comedy that perfectly captures the intricacies of a well-crafted love triangle.
This 2008 film tells the story of Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), a composer who decides to take a Hawaiian vacation to recover from his recent break-up with his TV star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Unfortunately, Peter finds himself in a 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife scenario as Sarah and her new rocker boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), are staying at the same resort. Clearly not over the ever-alluring Ms. Marshall, Peter begins to date the plucky hotel concierge, Rachel (Mila Kunis).
Segel doesn’t just portray the lovelorn protagonist in the film, the former How I Met Your Mother star also wrote the movie and used an “amalgamation of a lot of different relationships and breakups” to inject the script with a realistically nuanced portrayal of love and loss. When love triangles materialize outside the fabricated reality of Hollywood, they’re complicated. It’s rarely a romantic tug of war between a morally pristine saint and a disreputable scoundrel that culminates in a dramatic reconciliation scored by the Gin Blossoms.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that pulpy cinematic ice cream. A lot. I’m a stone-cold sucker for a dramatic declaration of love. I like the pomp and circumstance of starry-eyed fiction, but I LOVE the earnestness of romantic reality.
Peter, Rachel, and Sarah Marshall are all flawed people as opposed to broad archetypes. During his relationship with Sarah, Peter seemed content to remain vocationally stagnant and let his potential pass him by. Sarah cheated on Peter. Rachel has obvious anger issues. Love is grand, sometimes. Other times it’s a complicated morass of suck in which we futility attempt to see if our dumb defects and insecurities can peacefully coexist with somebody else’s dumb defects and insecurities.
You know you’re watching a well-crafted rom-com when you find yourself questioning your romantic allegiance. In most films, Sarah Marshall would portray the ostensible villain, but Segel’s shrewd script and Bell’s inherent likability combine to imbue the story with the realistic drama of ambiguity. For example, I enjoy The Wedding Singer. It’s a cute film with likable leads that has an ending that will make you swoon. But you don’t need to follow the stringent “You should love Robbie and hate Glenn” template to make Robbie and Julia’s inevitable happily ever after more meaningful. In real life, you don’t find yourself caught in a romantic quagmire between a knight in shining armor and an unemployed pirate. You’re romantically dazed and confused by two people who possess divergent characteristics. A jaunty extrovert and a pensive introvert. A Dawson or a Pacey. A Peyton or a Brooke.
By focusing on the intricacies of authentic adult relationships, Forgetting Sarah Marshall produced a realistically clumsy love triangle, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s fun to get lost in the sleekness of Hollywood films, but it’s also nice to watch a movie that confidently embraces the muddled awkwardness of love.
