Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Do you ever find yourself touched in some way while watching one of those fluffy, cheesy, romantic comedies? When I rent a movie like Philadelphia or Blood Diamond, my emotional response to the film is not unexpected. However, it definitely sounds a bit odd to talk to your friends about how when you were watching a film like "Jerry McGuire" you learned so much about yourself and felt deeply touched. I just watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and perhaps I should keep this information to myself, but even though it was fairly predictable at times and full of laugh at loud ridiculous moments I felt somewhat inspired by the main character's journey of self. Ultimately, I came away wanting to get over the last person I dated and devote myself to working on my dreams. Cazy, huh, from such a cheesy film to want to spend more time on improving myself (writing, exercise, etc.)?

The main character is this guy who gets dumped by his famous tv actress girlfriend and in his attempts to go on vacation and forget about her, he ends up at a resort in Hawaii where "coincidentally" his ex-girlfriend and her new, famous singer boyfriend are also vacationing. Lucky for him, there is an extremely attractive woman (played by Mila Kunis - check her out on line, trust me, you won't be disappointed) who works at the resort and they begin hanging out and eventually she helps inspire him to return home and finish writing his rock-opera about dracula and involving puppets. Sorry if you haven't seen it, then I kind of ruined a bit of the plot line for you. It's such a generic plot line though that I really think the distinguishing features of the movie must be seen for yourself.

Maybe I connected with the movie because I recently have been going through yet another dating disaster (if you read the last blog, then you will see that I am a bit focused on the same topic right now). This time, I thought that I really liked the girl, only to have her stop returning my calls for a week, then she came back all apologetic, I fell for it, and then she did the same thing again. While going through my whole process of getting over her (it wasn't a long relationship, but there is always some time needed) I had to come to the point where finally instead of being so sad about what had ended, I started to look at the reasons why she wasn't the best for me anyhow. I think that I tend to put my blinders on at the beginning of dating someone new. It was kind of nice to look back and realize that I actually was fairly irritated by many things about her. Like how she once told my friend that she didn't want to live on the East Coast because the people there didn't care about recycling. Then later she got all self conscious about it telling me that she felt stupid for saying that. Well, you know what, it kind of was a stupid thing to say.

There was a super, super funny scene in the movie where the main character is trying to have sex with some girl to forget about his ex-girlfriend, and the girl keeps saying "hi" to him over and over again. You know, that kind of sweet, look at me, I'm so cute and innocent version of "hi." This girl actually did that. And I had to crack up when the character in the movie responds finally with, "Could you stop saying hi already?"

Over the course of the movie, as the main character meets a new girl, he realizes the ways in which the new girl actually appeals to him and complements him much better than his ex-girlfriend ever did. She encourages him to follow his dreams and write his rock opera, which, of course, he finishes by the end of the film (you know how in every movie, everyone eventually goes on to accomplish their dreams?)

Anyhow, the film spoke to me in the same way that my therapist did the other day: whatever good feelings you have had with someone that you are sad about not having anymore can be found and more with someone else.