The end of the world is nigh and two strangers, Dodge and Penny, meet and decide to go on a road trip to see Dodge's long-lost childhood sweetheart.
You're feeling lower than you've ever felt. Your wife has just left you. You just found out she's been seeing another man for years. Oh, and there's a great big asteroid heading towards Earth that's going to wipe out all life in three weeks. Did I forget to mention that the world was ending literally, as well as figuratively?
That's the setup for Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, a bittersweet romantic comedy-drama that stars Steve Carell and Keira Knightley as two romantically-unlucky and generally-unfulfilled misfits who find comfort in each other's company as the world comes to an end.
As the pair journeys across America in search of their friends and family, they gradually become closer at the same time as they begin to realise what the truly important things in their lives have been - and it isn't necessarily what they'd expect.
But the film manages to avoid the slushiness that's implied by that description, instead focusing on some very grounded human details that help us to sympathise with the characters as well as provoking us as an audience to reconsider the details of our own lives, and what is really important to us.
It might sound like an odd decision to set such a low-key and character-driven story against such a large-scale, high-concept backdrop, but it actually works very well. Giving the planet a three-week time limit adds a certain urgency to what might have otherwise been a directionless and meandering will-they-won't-they story, forcing the two leads to confront the reality of their lives head-on, and drawing out the humanity of their characters at a rapid pace as they face up to their impending death.
Carell, in particular, is surprisingly good (given his background as a comedian) as Dodge Petersen, the abandoned and depressed husband who finds himself revitalised after meeting the slightly younger but similarly disenfranchised Penny (played by Knightley). Knightley's performance here is a little reminiscent of Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: a kooky British girl who might have her vices and flaws, but whose heart is ultimately in the right place.
Also, like Eternal Sunshine, this movie manages to maintain a sharp focus on its two key characters despite the apparent zaniness of its premise, using the larger backdrop to serve the central drama of the story rather than the other way around. Whilst there are some occasional glimpses of what's happening in the wider world as a result of the imminent asteroid arrival (suicides; orgies; crime; general social breakdown, basically), it always plays second fiddle to Dodge and Penny's story.
And by the time the film reaches its denouement, you'll realise what a smart move that was - because it's the smaller human moments, rather than the story of the wider planetary destruction, that really stay with you after it's over.
Penny's obsession with old vinyl records or Dodge's nostalgic recollections of a past failed relationship are far more gripping on a personal level than a Deep Impact or Armageddon-style action-packed finale would have been, and it makes for an unexpectedly uplifting conclusion, given that the movie is essentially about the end of all life on Earth.
And there's plenty of humour throughout too, whether it's the oddball truck driver that the pair encounter (who, it turns out, has his own unique plans for how to end his life) or the absurd exchange with a police officer who's determined to arrest the couple for minor traffic offences, despite the inherent meaninglessness of the reprimand given the impending destruction of the planet.
To conclude, Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World is a unique and unexpectedly moving comedy-drama that's really more about what it means to be human and love someone else than it is about an asteroid destroying the planet.
But the asteroid helps.
Watchable 'End Of The World' film with an excellent, darkly comedic first half hour that soon gives way to a lacklustre, formulaic rom-com. First time writer / director Lorene Scafaria sets up an interesting scenario where everyone in the world is well aware of the fact that the end is nigh (courtesy of an incoming asteroid) and there's nothing they can do about it. This leads to mild mannered, sensible people going off the rails in a hedonistic haze whilst others try to do what they can to cope; Steve Carell plays a dispirited insurance salesman whose wife promptly leaves him upon hearing news of the Earth's imminent destruction. He ends up going on a road trip with his cool, quirky neighbour Kiera Knightley: she's off to join her family, he to find an old flame, obviously, this odd couple eventually fall for each other as Carell regains his mojo whilst down-in the-dumps stoner Knightley opens up about her feelings and so on.
'Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World' plays out like its been work-shopped to within an inch of its life at some Hollywood screenplay class; everything follows through as you'd expect, we move from one point to another to another to the inevitable, and frankly welcome, conclusion. Steve Carell holds it all together with strong support from Martin Sheen as his absentee father, an all too brief but hilarious appearance by Rob Corddry and a brilliant cameo by William Peterson. Keira Knightley is better here than she's been in a while and rocks the dizzy, pot smoking boho style like its 2003, she's quite annoying at times, but it could've been worse: they could've cast Zooey Deschanel, in which case you'd be rooting for the asteroid. Carell and Knightley strike up a good on-screen rapport and though some of their dialogue sounds like wannabe Nick Hornby meets Richard Curtis, we just about get a sense of who these characters are and you do sort of care about how their relationship will play out given the apocalyptic circumstances under which it blossomed.
As it stands, 'Seeking A Friend For The End of the World' is a forgettable, reasonably well-acted variation on a tried, tested and rather tired genre, not awful but nothing to write home about either. Hit and miss.
We will publish your review of Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World on DVD within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Steve Carell and Keira Knightley star in this apocalyptic comedy from first-time director Lorene Scafaria. When his wife leaves him after discovering that a 70-mile-wide asteroid is heading for Earth and all attempts to stop it have failed, mild-mannered insurance salesman Dodge (Carell)'s world comes crashing down. But when his fellow misfit neighbour, Penny (Knightley), delivers a lost letter from Dodge's high-school sweetheart, the pair decide to embark on a road trip. Dodge aims to find his former love, while Penny hopes to spend her last days with her family in England. The pair soon find themselves caught up in the adventure of a lifetime.
Steve Carell and Keira Knightley star in this apocalyptic comedy following two neighbours who set out for one last road trip after learning that a massive asteroid will wipe out all life on Earth in just three weeks. As the odometer turns and society collapses all around them, the connection that Dodge (Carell) and Penny (Knightley) form takes them on a wild adventure befitting of the end days, and reveals how the most important people can enter our lives at the most unexpected times. Rob Corddry, Patton Oswalt, and Melanie Lynskey co-star.
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
