Forgetting Sarah Marshall is so wonderful because all the characters get made fun of, but still remain completely selfless and supportive of one another.
There's something very refreshing about taking a bunch of characters who have little-to-no familiarity with each other, putting them in a strange, new location, and having them remain respectful to each other from the get go, despite an occasional joke or quibble. I know this is more of an Apatow-adjacent movie than an Apatow movie, but I think there's a similar theme across his movies of adults not being reluctant to lean on each other, even when they don't know each other that well.
Let's look at Peter. We laugh at him for his crying at first, but he's welcomed and included by the cordial hotel staff after his breakup with Sarah Marshall. None of them hound him to share stories about what it was like to date or hook up with a Hollywood celebrity. They immediately identify him as a wounded person who needs help, and they take it upon themselves to help him.
Sarah Marshall does have moments where she seems vapid or vain and it's implied she isn't that great of an actress, but she's also generally cordial to Peter throughout their time at the resort. We disliked her at first after the breakup, but learn that she had legitimate reasons for nuking the relationship. We understand and empathize with her more than we loathe her.
Despite barely knowing him, Rachel immediately goes above and beyond for Peter from a hospitality perspective. When she gets to know him better, she pushes him out of his comfort zone at the Hawaiian local bar by getting him to play music. She doesn't humiliate or gossip about him to others after Peter's initial failed romantic attempt with her. And when she does finally become a thing with Peter, she carefully avoids stepping on his or Sarah's toes, or at least until Sarah provokes her in a brief moment of jealousy. And even then Rachel's still as civil as possible.
Aldous Snow is initially painted as narcissistic Hollywood nympho celeb, but he takes the time to invite Peter to dinner, listen to Peter's music, as well as help out Jack McBrayer's resort guest overcome his sexual dysfunction. He's kind of a bullshit artist as Sarah mentioned, but he's a genuinely nice fellow. He's the single most famous person in the movie but is still the most down to earth.
And last but not least, Peter's stepbrother Brian is quick to lambast Peter for a misplaced insult about his wife Liz, but still goes above and beyond to help Peter out on his vacation and later with the Dracula musical.
The only person with entirely selfish intentions in the film is Matthew, aka Jonah Hill's restaurant employee character. He just wants praise and acceptance from his idol Aldous Snow without giving anything of authentic value in return. If this movie had any other creative team behind it, this movie would have been filled with a bunch of Matthews, one-note caricatures of Hawaii resort employees who don't help Peter but impede him in some way out of pure plot contrivance. Thankfully, we got the movie we got instead.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/15ccvmy/forgetting_sarah_marshall_is_so_wonderful_because/
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