Amazon Prime Video has just added a romantic comedy inspired by a real Hollywood star’s love life to its catalogue. The 2008 film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is now available for Prime subscribers to stream at no extra cost.
Penned by How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel and marking Nicholas Stoller’s (Bad Neighbours) directorial debut, the film features an impressive cast including Kristen Bell, Paul Rudd, Russell Brand, and Mila Kunis.
The plot centres around Peter (Segel), a heartbroken man who heads to Hawaii to recover from his breakup with TV star Sarah Marshall (Bell).
However, he discovers that Sarah is also holidaying on the island with her new celebrity boyfriend Aldous Snow (Brand).
This unexpected reunion leads to awkward encounters for Peter but ultimately helps him find closure.
Interestingly, this comedy of errors is based on Segel’s own experiences. The actor confessed that he drew inspiration for the film from his personal breakups.
He even revealed that the opening scene, which sees Peter naked as his girlfriend breaks up with him, happened ‘exactly as it was portrayed,” reports Surrey Live.
Speaking at a Harvard Book Store event in 2015, Segel revealed the personal connection he had with his film’s opening scene: “The opening scene of the movie, the breakup scene, that happened to me exactly as it was portrayed in the movie.”
He went on to share the painful real-life inspiration behind the scene: “A woman I was dating was out of town, and she came back and called me up and said, ‘We need to talk.'”
Segel admitted his misunderstanding of the situation: “I thought that meant something different than what that meant, apparently. So I was waiting, and she walked through the door, and I was like how I am in the movie [undressed]. And this breakup happened.”
While Segel has mentioned that the character Sarah Marshall represents an amalgamation of past relationships, fans have long speculated that much of the film is drawn from his relationship with Linda Cardellini, his co-star from Freaks and Geeks, whom he dated for over six years.
Upon its release, Forgetting Sarah Marshall resonated deeply with audiences, earning high praise from viewers. One Rotten Tomatoes user exclaimed: “One of the best rom-coms of recent memory that is equally sweet as it is gut-bustingly funny.”
Another fan wrote: “Just hilarious, a comedy classic, with the perfect mix of sharp dialogue, great acting, terrific characters effective physical comedy and just enough moments of genuine sympathy for the poor jilted main character Peter.”
Additionally, another viewer admitted: “I’m not a rom-com kinda person, but this film found a great balance between dumb, raunchy, heartfelt, and hilarious to make it quite enjoyable.”
One cinema enthusiast described the drama on IMDB as “an amusing and sometimes awkward breakup film.”
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.