CINEMA: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

A little Russell Brand goes a long, long way and unfortunately there’s quite a lot of Brand in this romcom taken from the bloke’s perspective. When his girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell) splits up with him, struggling musician Peter (Jason Segel) is distraught and falls into a depressed state of not washing, working or cleaning his flat. He decides a vacation in Hawaii at a luxury resort could restore his sanity – only to discover Sarah is also staying at the same hotel. But Sarah is not alone, she’s with her new boyfriend, notorious Brit rocker and womaniser Aldous (Brand). Not wanting to appear pathetic Peter decides to brave it out and finds support in the lovely figure of hotel employee Rachel (Mila Kunis) who could just be the answer to his prayers.

To all intents and purposes this is a boy version of Bridget Jones, and so the humour is predictably far coarser and lewder. Brand plays a parody of himself and although initially entertaining he soon becomes very annoying indeed. Much better is Paul Rudd as stoned surfer Brandon and it’s a shame there is so much less of him than Brand because he’s far better value for money. Meanwhile, Segel is chubbily loveable as Peter and finally comes into his own in the funniest sequence of the film when Rachel asks him to perform some of his music in public – his rock opera about Dracula (complete with cod Eastern European accent) understandably fails to bring the house down, but will definitely crease you up. Dee Pilgrim