Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

It's rare that I rate a movie this highly. No doubt many will disagree with this rating and I admit to having some doubts myself. I had to ignore the fact that Keira Knightly was miscast in the role of Dodge's (Steve Carell) friend, Penny. As I've mentioned in other reviews, she always seems to be overacting. This may be a personal thing as I'm sure others are enthralled by her work. Martin Sheen is not convincing as Dodge's father. The plot has some problematic moments.

These negatives aside, this is a movie driven by a compelling idea: What would you do if you had only three weeks to live? Well, some resort to taking drugs, others to sex, and others to suicide. Some persevere with dignity to the end. The absurdity of life and the value of death is highlighted, as strange as this may sound. Death puts life into its proper perspective. On the surface, this film has many elements of a romantic comedy and some may dismiss it as such. But look past the surface of this film and you will begin to appreciate it much more.

Of course, we are all facing the end of our own worlds, maybe not in three weeks or en masse, as is portrayed here, but through our individual mortality. Would you continue to work out, visit your dentist, or mow the lawn if you knew it was all soon coming to an end? Basically, the film looks at what in life is truly important. What is worth living for? Who would you want to spend those last moments with and why aren't you spending time with them now? Because this movie brings such existential topics into focus, I think it deserves an above average rating. Don't think of this as a grim, realistic look at life. There is a good deal of humor here. You'll have a few laughs, which, I believe, help to highlight the film's more serious elements.

My opinion of Steve Carrell has been on the rise ever since he starred in Dan in Real Life. In Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, he plays the role of a down and out loser to perfection.

In short, if you are seeking a movie to watch with a friend, this should be your choice. You'll have much to discuss afterwards. It may even make you re-evaluate what you have accepted as being important. Time is, after all, running out.

We've seen dramatic and extreme post-apocalyptic thrillers almost as many times as we've survived the Rapture, and it is hard to imagine that anyone can interpret the theme in a way that would make a movie more enjoyable. However, none of the previous films starred Steve Carrell or stayed completely in the pre-apocalyptic world. As it turns out, these two facts make a huge difference.

Dodge (Carrell) learns that nothing can be done to prevent the imminent destruction of the world while in the car with his wife, Linda (Nancy Carrell, formerly Nancy Walls and hilarious without saying a word). Linda then literally runs away, and so begins the story of Dodge's terrible misfortune. He is a modern-day adult version of Charlie Brown – likable, but not extraordinary in any sense except for his ability to attract sadness. Seeking then shows how everyone else is coping with the news, and Dodge doesn't seem very interested in surfing, sex, or suicide, so he just meanders through the madness sipping his cough syrup. He probably would have done that for the entire three weeks left of his life were it not for a his neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley), a flighty girl trying to get a flight back to her family in England. The two escape a riot (and Penny's loser boyfriend, perfectly played by Adam Brody) and set out on an adventure so that Dodge can say goodbye to his high school sweetheart and Penny can get to England by way of Dodge's friend who owns a plane.

The commercials portray this film as more of a comedy, and it is delightfully funny in some spots, but this film is far more emotionally and intellectually stimulating than it is amusing. I remember thinking at the end of 2005's War of the Worlds, "I wish they had spent more time focusing on humanity." The human experience of facing the end of life is so complex and so unique to every individual, and Director Loren Scafaria succeeds in showing the despair, decadence, and delusions that people would definitely be wrapped up in were this to occur in real life.

Carrell is brilliant as usual with his effortless self-effacing humor. He seems to have worked on his deadpan skills as his funniest moments include reacting to crazy events with a blank stare or monotone comment. Knightley manages to be an effervescent and bubbly realist without being annoying, which makes Penny a completely plausible running buddy for Dodge, who can't take much more agitation. These two stars have a chemistry that allows Dodge to come out of his shell and live the last days of his life the way he wished he had lived all along. A few people live in less inspiring ways to awesome comedic effect. Elsa, Dodge's housekeeper, still diligently comes to clean his house and even instructs him to get more "Windows" while shaking a nearly empty bottle of glass cleaner. Warren (fellow Daily Show alum Rob Corddry) celebrates the end of responsibility by boozing it up and sharing his drinks freely, even with little kids. These scenes, however, are merely distractions from how Dodge and Penny learn more than they ever imagined about life and the world simply because it is all coming to an end. Despite the hokey-ness, I must admit that I got teary-eyed as the characters realized what matters most.

Focus Features does a great job of producing equally thought-provoking and heartstring-pulling films and Seeking is no exception. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and with any luck, you'll leave the theater thankful that you most likely have more than three weeks to make the most of your life.

Despite the imminent approach of an ineluctable end of the world, the film oddly bathes in a soft and serene atmosphere, if we obviously ignore some people who behave with humor, for our greatest pleasure: I mow my lawn, I do body-building, I am looking for a new Chief Financial Officer, I'm ready with my all-male friends to repopulate the planet (this one is undoubtedly my favorite), I collect vinyls in a digitized world (this one might be controversial), ... and tutti quanti!

Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) meet by chance while they are long-time neighbors. They will quickly realize that they perfectly match to achieve together their ultimate quests: he seeks to revisit the love of his life that he has not seen for 18 years and she seeks to see her parents and her nephew again. During these two concomitant quests, despite a 1-generation gap, they will learn to know each other, to appreciate each other, to desire each other.

As a synthesis: this movie is based on two marvelous characters characterized by their empathy and their beneficence, within an atmosphere as odd as wacky. 7/8 of 10

Armageddon, doomsday, the final apocalypse. Ever since the beginning of time man has wondered how it will all end. Another great flood, a nuclear war or in this case an asteroid. Filmmakers have always done their best to exploit this basic fear we have of the termination of our existence in movies like Fail Safe, On The Beach and The Day After. I put this film right up there with them because of the awesome performances of Steve Carell and Keira Knightley as our hero and heroine who we know are doomed from the start. I have always admired Carell as a comic (Get Smart, Date Night). However, he proves here that he can handle drama with the rest of them as does Knightley. They both have very powerful monologues in this film where they talk of their lonely lives. Its so ironic that they both find joy and love in life when they are on the very edge of death.

There really isn't one aspect of the actual events of this story that isn't some kind of spoiler, the less known the better. It's better to watch this thing completely fresh. That's how I saw it and it made the experience far better it would seem. Without getting in to detail, the story itself starts off bizarre and it seems like they simply picked the wrong subject to try and make a dramedy about. Yet, getting to know and sympathize with Carell's character is what flat out makes the film. Keira Knightley is wonderful and this is probably the best thing I've ever seen her do.

The overall tone fights itself a LOT as it jumps from the morose to the absurd to events that just aren't logical. Still, since no one has faced the end of the world, what exactly is logical? They did respectfully touch on the aspect of faith but it struck me more that they went out of their way to avoid the subject for the most part. To me, that's playing it way too safe. They did that a lot with many subjects that you would expect to come up in an end of days film. Overall, the movie has heart and elicited real emotion from me.