‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’: a memorable rom-com

Above : Mila Kunis and Jason Segel star in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” (Photo/Universal Pictures)

Romantic comedies – or rom-coms as they’ve come to be called – run the gamut from the maudlin to the farcically funny.

Somewhere in between – but far closer to the latter than the former – you’ll find 2008’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

Directed by Nicholas Stoller , from an original screenplay by Jason Segel , the film stars Segel as Peter Bretter, a guy who composes music for a popular crime series who is dating one of the show’s stars, the title character Sarah Marshall (played by Kristen Bell ). His life gets turned upside down when she breaks up with him in favor of a British rock star (played by Russell Brand ).

Things get progressively worse for Peter when, by chance (or by script fiat), he books a vacation at the very same Hawaiian resort – the real-life Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore – as his ex and her new lover.

The film’s romance involves the character played by Segel and Bell, with Mila Kunis as someone who complicates – and yet completes – the plot.

The comedy is provided mostly by Brand, who has never been better, and other actors cast in secondary roles, such as Bill Hader as Peter’s stepbrother, Paul Rudd as a ditzy surf teacher, Jonah Hill as an obsessive fan and Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer as a newlywed couple clueless about sex.

While “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is available through a number of streaming services, it will play in a couple of area theaters at 7 p.m. on Monday (the Regal Cinemas houses at NorthTown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium).

The film will be presented by the stars (Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane) of the forthcoming film “Bros,” directed by and co-written (with Eichner) by Nicholas Stoller, who will also be on hand.

Should be a comic, not to mention romantic, time.

Below : Paul Rudd plays an offbeat surf teacher.