सीकिंग ए फ्रेंड फॉर द एंड ऑफ़ द वर्ल्ड

Watching an American picture about the end of the world and finding that there is no concentration on things blowing up and exploding came as a welcome relief if not a surprise.

This film is a little gem of a black comedy with some drama and romanticism thrown in.

I only recognised two or three faces - but everyone of the players is good and the two leads are superb. The male lead is of a character not usually associated with the romantic and this brings out more of the warmth.

Quirky, offbeat, lovable, zany and intelligent are some of the words I would use to describe this entertainment - and entertain it certainly does.

If this picture comes this way - grab it, you will love it.

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.

Everyone knows about the calm that happens before the storm. In "Seeking A Friend for the End of the World", what's amazing is just how long that calm lasts.

Throughout the first part of this film, you can't help but wonder, as you watch, how you would react if you heard nonchalant reports on radio and TV about a 70-mile wide asteroid heading for Earth and destroying life as we know it. Would you seek refuge in a fallout shelter and hope for the best, or say "To hell with it!" and do all the things you couldn't do when there was established order with a purpose?

Dodge (Steve Carell) seems to find a third option no one else even tries to consider: sitting calmly and maintaining his own order as virtually everyone else is participating in an orgy or a riot. While being calm works for him as a survival instinct, it also reflects his loneliness. The more people surrounding him, the lonelier he seems.

Very similar to Bill Murray's character in "Lost In Translation", Carell is great at conveying so much despite doing so little. It becomes all the more fascinating when he's the only character in the movie who does not throw caution into the wind. After all, would you be this calm if the world was going to end?

Keira Knightley is Penny, a vibrant but distraught British woman who lives in the same building as Dodge. She appears one night outside his window, and is frantically crying after her realization that she can't fly back home to Great Britain to see her family. Knightley serves as a great contrast to Carell in many ways, and she is a welcome presence in this movie. And I am SO glad the film didn't try to cover her sweet British accent.

The film evolves into a sort of road-trip movie when a riot ensues outside their apartment building, and Dodge persuades Penny to drive to Somerset, Delaware because he knows someone who owns an airplane. As it turns out, Dodge also had a high school girlfriend who wrote to him a few months earlier, before his wife left him.

Sounds like a familiar journey from another movie? Well, "Seeking A Friend For The End of the World" takes you in one direction you think you're going, and then often makes a sharp left when you least expect it. The movie is also funnier than the title suggests, has some startling moments I never saw coming nor expected, and keeps you watching for many reasons.

Is there a love story between Dodge and Penny? Like the recent "Salmon Fishing In The Yemen" (2012), you find yourself unsure if the two main characters should fall in love, or if there is at least a little attraction, or if it really makes any difference.

There are other things you wonder while watching this movie. Most notably, is the world really going to end? Everyone in this movie seems to think so. While it's fascinating to see how different characters react to the news, you keep watching because you want to see if it really does. It can't be a dream or a delusion, can it?

It's great that in a summer season of action flicks and disaster films, there's one film that takes its time showing how ordinary people react to extraordinary things. There's an asteroid headed towards Earth, but there are no explosions, deaths, astronauts, superheroes, or even (surprisingly) camera shots of the sky in this movie whatsoever. Moviegoers who hated "Armageddon" (1998) will be relieved, I'm sure.

Besides Carell and Knightley, other fairly well-known actors show up so briefly, their appearances could practically be considered cameos. Still, every performance by everyone involved stays with you to the point where you probably pinpoint one character and say, "Yeah, I'd probably be THAT guy given the circumstances". As the doomsday clock counts down and the movie ends, you may find yourself reevaluating what you want the last image in your mind to be before it's all over.

Actually I had expected this to be somewhat more of a comedy, but it turned out to be a much better experience than just another average comedy. "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" turned out to be a very beautiful and emotional movie, with just a pinch of great comedy added to spice it up.

The story is about the end of days approaching as an asteroid is bound for Earth, and will destroy the planet upon impact. Dodge (played by Steve Carell) finds himself abandoned by his wife upon this news and tries to go on with his life for the last 21 days before the world comes to end. He gets acquainted with a downstairs neighbor, Penny (played by Keira Knightley) whom he haven't talked with for the past 3 years of living in the same apartment building. These two very different spirits end up on a road trip together to get Dodge to his high school girlfriend and get Penny aboard an airplane for Great Britain. Their journey proves to be more than life changing.

The storyline for "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" was really great, and bizarre wonderful in a weird way. There is this whole gloomy downtrodden feel to it as people are trying to cope with coming to terms with life ending within 3 weeks. But at the same time, there is such a strong emotional journey taking place as we follow Dodge and Penny on their path to their destinations. The movie is driven by great characters and by superb acting. There is just the right amount of absurd and dark comedy to this movie that helps build up the right atmosphere.

I was genuinely surprised by this movie. I knew that it wouldn't be a horrible movie, because Steve Carell usually delivers great performances and do good comedy. But his deliverance in this movie was just phenomenal. He was so well-cast for this movie. As was Keira Knightley, and their chemistry on the screen was just sizzling.

The movie also boasts some rather great cameo appearances, all of whom really helped adding to the movie, by actors and actresses such as Rob Corddry, Patton Oswalt, William Petersen and, of course, Martin Sheen.

"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" is a definite to-watch-movie for any movie aficionado, because it is very beautiful and moving in many ways. I am really happy that I sat down to watch this movie. And to top it off, this is the type of movie that leaves you with a parting gift, something to think about; what would you do if you only had 21 days left before the world ended?

Oh, and as a final note, if you are prone to tear in beautiful movies, you might keep a tissue at hand for the ending of this movie. Just a word of advice.

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.