ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - MOVIE REVIEWS: FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL

Critics may not be giving Forgetting Sarah Marshall a lot of props for craftsmanship, but they are for daring -- daring to show the star's penis in particular. As Claudia Puig puts it in USA Today: "The good-natured story and likable characters offset the comedy's unevenness. ... An unlikely full-frontal nude scene reminds us that even after Borat's infamous wrestling bout, we can still be put off by the ordinary human form in an awkward and emotionally vulnerable situation." Likewise Glenn W hipp comments in the Los Angeles Daily News, "The sure-footed Sarah will be remembered primarily for Segel's bravery in baring all to the camera." Rick Groen in the Toronto Globe and Mail offers this reassurance. "Don't be prudish, 'cause here's the deal: The laugh-out-loud context makes the nudity a hoot." But the film also receives generally positive notices from critics who barely mention the full-frontal scene. "This film is so funny it may be beside the point to complain that, as in many Apatow productions, the writing and direction are still in something of a state of arrested development," writes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Amazingly, few critics even mention the billboard campaign that touched off considerable buzz in its own right. One who does is Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune, who concludes that "unlike its own bluntly nasty ad campaign ... this story of one man's rebound has a heart to go with its comic nerve."

18/04/2008