According to either the Incas or the Mayans – I get them confused – supposedly we’re all toast come this December.
Whether you believe that to be the case or not, the apocalypse has been explored in a variety of films as of late, dating back to the big-budget, Hollywood disaster film 2012, from the filmmakers behind the 1996 blockbuster, Independence Day.
Just last year, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier tackled the end of days with Melancholia which took the Cannes International Film Festival by storm, winning Kirsten Dunst the festival’s best actress prize, despite highly controversial comments made by the director while promoting the film during the festival at a now-infamous press conference.
The latest film to tackle the subject is the awkward, yet interesting enough comedy-drama Seeking A Friend for the End of the World starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley as a pair of strangers who couldn’t be more different yet form a bond amid all the doomsday anxiety and hysteria going on around them.
Carell (Dan in Real Life and Crazy, Stupid, Love) yet again plays a sad sack, this time he’s Dodge Petersen, whose wife literally flees from him once word comes down that a last ditch effort to save the planet from being hit by a massive asteroid has failed and life as we know it will cease to exist in a few short weeks, three to be exact.
Despite taking in a steady stream of news reports (featuring veteran character actor Mark Moses beautifully channeling the late, great-Peter Jennings) that are essentially countdowns to doomsday, Dodge is so disaffected and disconnected that spousal abandonment and pending Armageddon are mere inconveniences, not life-altering events.
While his closes friends (played by the likes of “Friday Night Light’s” Connie Britton, and comedians Patton Oswalt and Rob Corddry) are boozing, drugging and free-loving their way to the end, straight-laced Dodge refuses to partake in their newfound debauchery. He’d rather reminisce about his high school sweetheart (his one true love, the one who got away) than throw inhibitions to the wind and really cut loose, perhaps for the first time ever.
Cue the chance encounter he has with Penny (Knightley), a young, pretty British bohemian who resides in the same building he does. She’s desperate to get home to England to be with her family, and he might be able to be of assistance. So after narrowly escaping a riot, the unlikely duo hits the open road and encounter a number of oddball characters along the way.
It’s curious that the film plays fast and loose with such serious subject matter. Sure, we do get occasional glimpses of the sort of anarchy a pending doomsday would surely bring about (suicides, rioting, gluttony in various forms) but no one outside of Dodge’s wife seems to be in much of a hurry. And a potentially serious condition that affects Penny is given a rudimentary explanation, and in the end makes little sense given the circumstances.
The script, the brainchild of first-time director Lorene Scafaria (who wrote the script for the underrated romantic comedy Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings), starts out promising enough but loses its way. It gets an A for effort, but a C for execution. Matters aren’t helped by the tacked-on, obligatory romance between Dodge and Penny that just doesn’t work. However, there is a quite moving third act development between one of the main characters and someone from their past that rings refreshingly true.
Had the film shuttered the awkward, unnecessary romance, Seeking A Friend for the End of the World could have been a real gem instead of an interesting miscalculation.
Grade: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
Stars: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, Gillian Jacobs, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey, T.J. Miller, Mark Moses, Patton Oswalt, and William Petersen
Directed By: Lorene Scafaria
Written By: Lorene Scafaria
Produced By: Steve Golin, Joy Gorman Wettels, Steven Rales, and Mark Roybal
Distributor: Focus Features
Rating: R, for language including sexual references, some drug use, and brief violence.
Running Time: Approximately 101 minutes
Website: www.SeekingAFriendMovie.com
Budget: N/A
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Release Date: June 22, 2012
