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[tab title="Movie Review"]

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Movie Review

2 stars

In case of a fire, what would you grab on the way out the door? In the face of the world’s total annihilation, would you significantly change anything about your life?  These age-old questions form the themes in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, which represents writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s directorial debut.

That Penny (Keira Knightley) lunges for her prized vinyl record collection upon learning that a rogue asteroid is destined to obliterate the Earth in just 21 days, is no mere coincidence as Scafaria previously expressed her love of music as the writer of 2008’s Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.  As in that film, Scafaria effectively positions her soundtrack selections in Seeking a Friend to walk us through her end-of-the-world scenario that is likely to catch most viewers off guard - in a bad way - as it bears little resemblance to the film advertised in the trailers.

To be fair, the first half of the film carries the trailer’s straight-up comedic vibe with Steve Carell once again as the forlorn, woe-is-me schleprock character he does so well. He’s Dodge, a happily married, vanilla New York City insurance adjuster who has always played by the rules of life. But upon learning that a last-ditch effort to save earth from a plummeting asteroid has failed, his wife runs away, literally, leaving him to live out his final days alone. He does manage to pick up a stray dog along the way though.

Just as the city is on the verge of erupting into full-scale riot, Dodge strikes a deal with his goofy Brit apartment neighbor Penny. If she’ll drive him across the country to meet up one last time with his high school sweetheart, he’ll take her to someone he knows with an airplane so she can get with her family in England.

It’s an interesting premise for sure, but certainly not an unexplored one. Scafaria begins her end-of-days scenario with a darkly comedic tone. For the most part, citizens see the end of the world as a force of liberation with wild parties where young children are allowed to drink alcohol and adults do heroin and indulge in wanton sex.  Businesses and stores remain open but money and service mean little, as shenanigans, fun times, and hamburgers with donut buns become the main course at restaurants.

Then, halfway through the film, Scafaria’s sardonic glimpse into the abyss does an about face. Gone is her witty tongue that once offered an almost farcical look at the recklessness of human nature in the face of extermination, now replaced by pitch-black melodrama with Dodge and Penny’s budding relationship at its center.  Sure, their courtship calls for a bit more seriousness, and I admit I enjoyed the latter half of the film over the beginning probably because I bought into Dodge and Penny, despite having difficulty seeing Carell and Knightley together in real life. But seriously lacking is a more evenly spread biting tone without such a jarring disconnect that breaks the film in two. Scafaria clearly wanted to be both funny and poignant but wasn’t able to find a way to effectively blend the two. As such, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World isn’t able to fully realize its potential.

Then there’s Scafaria’s pitch-perfect soundtrack that does its best to stitch together the film’s valiant themes and what-if questions we’ve all pondered in the face of an imaginary doomsday scenario. Scafaria didn’t have to search far for the record albums that would become Penny’s evidence that our journeys are too often defined by what we have rather than who we have, as the collection is curated directly from Scafaria’s own. Ironically, she found a way to more greatly affect our emotions with her oddly dissimilar mélange of ditties from The Beach Boys, Wang Chung, Herb Alpert, and Frank Black than she did with the entire remainder of movie.[/tab]

[tab title="Film Details"]

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Movie ReviewMPAA Rating: R for language including sexual references, some drug use and brief violence.
Director
: Lorene Scafaria
Writer
: Lorene Scafaria
Cast: Steve Carell; Keira Knightley; Martin Sheen; Derek Luke; Adam Brody
Genre
: Comedy | Drama
Tagline:
Nice knowing you.
Memorable Movie Quote: "The 70 mile-wide asteroid known as Matilds is set to collide with Earth in exactly 3 weeks time, and we'll bring you your countdown to the end of days along with all your classic rock favorites."
Distributor:
Focus Features
Official Site:
Release Date:
June 22, 2012
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
No details available.

Synopsis: Steve Carell and Keira Knightley star in the comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, which marks the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Lorene Scafaria. Set in a too-near future, the movie explores what people will do when humanity's last days are at hand. As the respective journeys of Dodge (Carell) and Penny (Knightley) converge, the two spark to each other and their outlooks – if not the world's – brighten.[/tab]

[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

No blu-ray details available.[/tab]

[tab title="Trailer"]

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