We watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight, for the second time as we saw it in the spring in the theater. The other day we were talking about Hawaii, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis in various situations and it all added up to me ordering it. Funny, funny, fucking movie. Can't even tell you how many times I laughed out loud.
The screenplay is damn funny and at least somewhat clever, even though at its core, it's just another goofy love story. A goofy slightly chubby guy scores with a hot chick love story at that. But as is the case with all of the Apatow-related movies, you just can't help but pull for these characters. And I think the reason even chicks dig them is because the guys are not movie star types, so their flaws are a lot more believable.
But what really gets me is that point about it being a love story not entirely different from every other one that you've seen. My personal hang up in writing a screenplay is that I find it easiest to write from experience, and there's just nothing particularly unique about it. Movies like this one show me that it doesn't matter if you can put the right elements around it. For example, my "you gonna eat the rest of that" gag is begging to be worked into any otherwise ordinary script.
The special features on practically every movie also make me realize that I really long for the experience and collaboration. I think I could give two shits about editing something, but shooting it I think would be a blast. Managing people and process at work, I'm showing myself how well I can lead and push my vision, and I think that would translate well to directing. Plus, I have someone who is really organized who I bet would enjoy producing for me. Although she may freak out at the size of the budget I have in mind!
It's not surprising giving some recent posts that I've been thinking about the ups and downs I've had the last few years, and I think there's a perfect opportunity to draw a story out of that. And one thing that I like is that those stories do not have the traditional happy ending, because obviously in real life I ended up with Diana. But there is some happy twist in the other relationships, because of their enabling effects on my life. I'm trying to figure out how to spin that in a way that would make the audience smile in the end.
Dammit I gotta get this story out of me.
No comments yet.