“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” begins three weeks before an asteroid is set to hit Earth after our last attempt to stop it from coming has failed. Steve Carell stars as Dodge. Once the news is out that all hope is gone, his wife immediately leaves him. Now all alone and without a job, he believes his life is pretty much over. Then he meets a young woman named Penny (Keira Knightley) who lives in the same apartment building. She’s upset because all of the airports have officially been shut down and so she’ll never get to see her family again.
Riots start breaking-out and it’s no longer safe to live in the city so Dodge and Penny decide to escape in her car. Dodge tells her that he knew a guy who could fly her to England show she could spend the final days with her family. And he decides he wants to find his old high school sweetheart. So the two go on an adventurous road trip – mainly to find love again before it’s too late. However, what Dodge and Penny end-up finding is more than they expected.
“Seeking a Friend…” is mostly a drama, but it’s also filled with several brief but funny touches. However, it’s the performances by Carell and Knightley that make this an exceptional film. Carell pulls-off this “regular guy” flawlessly, reminding me of George Clooney’s performance in “The Descendants”. And Knightley also shines. She’s sweet, sad, funny, hopeful (much like the movie itself). The two of them together are very believable, have wonderful chemistry and really carry the movie. Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”), Patton Oswalt (“Ratatouille”) and Martin Sheen lead a solid supporting cast.
And the story also works. It’s simple (you can’t get more direct than counting down the days until the end of the world), but yet there are also some unexpected twists that add layers to the plot. The tone of the film is just right, and without giving too much away (but how can you with a title and premise like this), the ending is handled perfectly.
“Seeking a Friend” could’ve been a disaster (no pun intended) in the wrong hands, but first-time
director Lorene Scafaria (who also wrote the screenplay), handles this material with care. She relies on a great deal of close-ups of the two leads and their facial expressions often say all that needs to be said. The dialogue between Carell and Knightley is very natural and raw as is among the other characters. You quickly believe that this is probably how people would talk and act if they were facing this sitation. And the soundtrack fits perfectly with the emotion of the story. This has been a great summer so far for directorial debuts – first Rupert Sanders with “Snow White and the Huntsman” and now Scafaria here.
In short, this is the type of movie you go to the movies for: interesting and relatable characters, a unique story that doesn’t need to be over-stuffed with action scenes or necessarily have a happy ending. This is one of those films that gives you that “wow” feeling inside – knowing that you’ve just seen something with meaning that will stick with you for a long time.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” gets an A.
It’s rated R for some language, brief violence, and some adult and thematic subject matter, and is appropriate for teens and up. This is one of the best movies of the year and it’s great that everyone who missed it during it’s limited release this summer now has the chance to enjoy it.