Director: Nicholas Stoller

Screenwriter: Jason Segel

Producers: Judd Apatow, Shauna Robertson

Cast: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand

Runtime: 112 mins.

Rated: R for sexual content, language and graphic nudity

Released: April 18, 2008

Like a box of chocolates, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” offers you a delightful variety. It has everything: romantic kisses, the triumph of the underdog, exemplary moments of heroism and full-frontal male nudity.

As the curtain on this film rises, so to speak, the towel drops from the waist of Peter Bretter (Jason Segel). His TV star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), has just given him the “it’s not you, it’s me” talk. Furious, brokenhearted and teary-eyed, Peter flies to Hawaii in a desperate attempt to get over the breakup.

While there he meets (surprise!) his ex-girlfriend, her new lover and a pretty hotel receptionist. The film develops as the four characters keep bumping into each other in awkward moments and orchestrated schemes.

The hand of producer Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up”) is evident, as many of the jokes are classic Apatow -style in their exploration of male vulnerability.

Segel also deserves a round of applause for successfully capturing the “I wanna kill myself” post-breakup melancholy, and for his confidence in flaunting his … “entirety” … while the film’s other actors remain fully clothed even in sexual scenes.

“Sarah Marshall” certainly has its fair share of stale moments, especially when the dialogue fails to ring true. Many lines are awfully written and, every so often, even the solid acting of the cast fails to rescue the scenes from sounding worse than a bad high school romance drama.

Even worse, the characters seem clipped right out of the catalogue of overused archetypes. An immature loser protagonist with a pure heart? Check. A demonized, ex-girlfriend and her new, sex-god boyfriend? Check. And the list goes on.

Nonetheless, this brew of the two-dimensional characters, coupled with kinky circumstances and humiliating situations somehow gives “Sarah Marshall” a fresh, unconventional taste.

It is like an opera with lousy conducting, where every instrument plays different songs and every aria is dedicated to different lovers and is sung in different languages.

“Sarah Marshall” is a mess of an ensemble piece of dubious artistic merit, but it’s still a whole lot of fun to watch.