Reviewer's grade: A-

Give Jason Segel his due: The guy is fearless. Will Ferrell gets laughs for showing off his paunch, but Segel (TV's "Freaks and Geeks," "How I Met Your Mother") has written himself a movie part in which his penis is a visual punchline -- not once, but twice. In "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the full-frontal male nudity arrives early on, when sad-sack Peter Bretter (Segel) is fresh from the shower when he's kicked to the curb by his girlfriend of five years, TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell).

Peter sinks into despair and flees to a Hawaii resort, only to find Sarah is there with her new squeeze, a cocky rock star (Russell Brand) with the sexual prowess of a rabbit. Produced by comedy maestro Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up," "Superbad"), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is an irresistible fusion of sex-obsessed humor and emotional resonance. Like Segel's lovelorn Peter, the movie is a little unkempt and shaggy around the edges, but it is eminently lovable. R

"?Phil Bacharach

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