Let's dispense with the preliminaries: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is a hilarious movie, a brilliant deconstruction of the romantic comedy, a film that, assuming you have the appropriate sense of humor, will make you laugh out loud again and again.

Just so you know, "appropriate sense of humor" in this case means that you find raunchy jokes, wacky sex scenes and the sight of a grown man completely naked as his girlfriend breaks up with him funny.

And if you don't? See it anyway. Afterward, you will. It's the "Superbad" of chick flicks, and that's high praise, indeed.

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is the latest film from the Judd Apatow team, and it's a fantastic return to form after such near-misses as "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" and whiffs like "Drillbit Taylor." It stars Jason Segel, who also wrote the script, and like the best Apatow-produced projects, Segel layers on the raunch over a strong foundation of real feeling — in this case, heartbreak.

That comes by way of Sarah (Kristen Bell), the star of a "CSI"-like TV show, who dumps her beau, Peter (Segel), in the aforementioned naked-breakup scene. The scene, in addition to being uncomfortably funny, also serves as one of the more offbeat framing devices you'll ever see in a movie (to say more would spoil it).

To get over Sarah dumping him, Peter — who writes music for her show — first tries meaningless sex and booze, both in heavy doses. That doesn't do the trick, so, at the behest of his pal Brian (Bill Hader), Peter heads for a resort in Hawai'i.

There he finds Sarah, with her new boyfriend, self-absorbed rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), staying at the same resort. From there, it's mostly Peter trying to get over Sarah in an almost impossible setting for it. He meets Rachel (Mila Kunis), who works at the hotel and lends him a shoulder to cry on (and Peter does a lot of crying). He meets a guest ("30 Rock's" delightful Jack McBrayer) on his honeymoon who is not quite up to the task. He takes surfing lessons from a stoned-out dude (Paul Rudd, funnier than he has been in ages).

But mostly he tries to forget Sarah Marshall. Will he?

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" shies away from nothing in its attempts to make you laugh. Yet it also has enough heart to make you feel invested in the characters, to make you care what happens to them, in a way that most movies of this ilk do not.

In other words: You'll laugh! You'll cry! Well, you won't cry, really (unless you laugh so hard you cry). Whatever the case, Peter might want to forget Sarah Marshall. But you won't.

Bill Goodykoontz is the film critic for The Arizona Republic and chief film critic for Gannett.