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This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Los Hermanos (The Brothers)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall on IMDb

Plot Overview

mom, dad, babyThe major women in the lives of two step-brothers are putting them through some major changes. Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) has been dumped by Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) his girl­friend of 5½ years, and his step-brother Brian (Bill Hader) is about to become a father & his wife Liz (Liz Cackowski) a mother. Peter's social skills had atrophied when he'd been too absorbed exclusively in Sarah, so he calls on Brian to help him talk to women at a dive. The conver­sation seems to be going well until Peter blurts out a proposition, and Brian tells him to “pump the brakes.” The brake and gas are brother pedals there on the floor to be stepped on, but Brian calls Pete his “step-stranger” and tells him he's not normal.

kid with hand puppetThe women in L.A. being fast, Peter over three weeks has a series of one-night stands with some of them, but he can't shake thoughts of Sarah. Brian encourages him to work on his puppet opera, “A Taste For Love.” In it Dracula is well fed but the women he picks up all die, and he can­not die, so he's unable to form a relation­ship. On the other hand, he doesn't much remember the girls in his past either. It's like that old man whose doctor informed him he had cancer and Alzheimer's. He thinks about it a moment and says, “Well, doc, at least I don't have cancer.” The current girl drives out thoughts of past ones, so the man or monster who plays the field doesn't have trouble forgetting. Liz affirms that Brian doesn't remember any past girl­friend.

Fantasy Island ExpressPeter takes a Hawaiian vacation to get his mind off Sarah. At the desk he checks in behind a newly wed couple Darald (Jack McBrayer) & Wyoma (Maria Thayer.) They're Jack Mormons who've saved sex for the wedding night, a currently unpopular practice that was once quite normal and still is for some people. Limiting premarital sexual activity to kissy-face saves grief if one must go through several potential partners along the way. In the restaurant we hear a girl's excited acceptance of her beau's proposal. And we see a number of Hawaiian weddings taking place backed by the ocean. There's plenty of normal around if Peter wanted to pick up on it.

loversWhat he does get is Sarah arriving at the hotel with her new flame in tow, rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand,) and the concierge Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis) who hangs out with his sorry self out of charity, but she has her own baggage stomping around the island. Peter and Aldous go over “the code of the ocean: you don't sleep with another man's girl­friend.” Salvage law does in fact allow one to claim an abandoned ship on the high seas, but if you board her while she's crewed, that's piracy. If this movie had veered off on some kind of traditional line, it would have made for a milder rating, but they went for drama.

Ideology

To help us sort out the love machinations there's a trope found in, (Prov. 30:18-19) “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” Mundane non-human movements present their challenges to the observer as well as romantic ones. An eagle, well, we don't know when it will stop drifting on the air currents to swoop on some­thing below. A serpent slithers on a rock helter skelter but gets where it's going. A ship is tossed by forces aloft and below.

Similarly this romance movie is counterpoised with difficult-to-track movements on land, sea and air. It doesn't have a serpent, but a Hawaiian cook Keoki (Brans­combe Richmond) gets Pete to help him carry the food to the luau. It's a huge pig that must be butchered first with a Bowie knife and then trans­ported hung by its feet on a pole that the two of them carry. Neat trick, that.

There's no scene of a ship, but we do have Pete the novice surfer on the same shore­line as his nemesis Aldous who's paddling about on his board. Some­how they are going to collide.

There's no eagle in the air, but there is a leap into the ocean from off a cliff, with some tense moments. It's tricky to figure out the course of a budding romance, too.

Production Values

” (2008) was directed by Nicholas Stoller. It was written by Jason Segel who also starred in it, along with Kristen Bell and Paul Rudd. Co-stars include Bill Hader, Jack McBrayer, Liz Cackowski, Maria Thayer, Taylor Wily, Jonah Hill, and Da'Vone McDonald. There were cameos of William Baldwin and Jason Bateman. Very good performances were delivered by all. Mila Kunis was ravishing in her role as a trans­­planted Hawaiian.

MPAA generously rated it R for sexual content, language and some graphic nudity. It's actually pretty gross both in the rated and unrated versions. The unrated version includes an extra scene of a yoga class with the ocean out the window as a back­drop: very peaceful. If you're seeing this movie for romantic, Hawaiian remembrances, I recommend watching the unrated version, because you'll get an extra Hawaiian wedding outside, whereas the rated version is no less gross.

The humor was off-putting by intention as it will appeal to our lower natures. Some of it was milked through repetition, which raised the run time (1 hour 51 minutes.) It was in part shot in O'ahu, Hawaii where the scenery was plenteous and beautiful. The rock music fit the theme.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

This one went beyond what I'd call good taste, but to each his own. I'm sure some will like it. Other­wise, it was imbued with humor from several directions as well as island charm. Make up your own mind.

Movie Ratings

Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age or for queazy adults. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three amd a half stars out of five.