Shame on the director. A promising concept of imminent apocalypse which could be mined for great humor and pathos results in a messy road trip romance film with either miscast lead actors or just severe lack of chemistry, a sloppy script, and an avoidance of nearly everything that might make such a scenario interesting, funny, or terrifying.
It's the end of the world as they know it, and everyone does not feel fine. People react differently to the news that the asteroid that will incinerate all is headed towards earth in three weeks, and the final space mission could not deflect it from its path (I guess Bruce Willis and the Armageddon-crew failed). In the inspired opening shot, Dodge (Steve Carell) listens, transfixed and unemotional, to the broadcast on his car radio; Nancy, his wife (played by Carell's real-life wife), opens the door and runs off into the night without saying a word. Dodge slouches towards destruction, returning to his apartment, sticking to his routine. As the asteroid approaches, Dodge's cleaning lady keeps showing up to work, confused by Dodge's attempt to tell her that her services won't be needed. Dodge remains one of the few workers left at his insurance company, answering distressed calls, throwing up into his garbage can, and enduring quasi-hilarious staff meetings of five people where a supervisor asks, "Anyone want to be a CFO?" Dodge fights traffic. Dodge attends apocalyptic parties with his friends who curse at each other and their children, press young children into drinking martinis and shots, do heroin as a bucket list item, and clumsily throw themselves at each other. Nothing seems to wake Dodge out of his torpor.
A jolt arrives when Dodge's unknown neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) cries on the fire escape outside of his apartment, seemingly trapped in a contentious relationship, and struggling because she has missed the last trans-Atlantic flight home to her loving parents in Surrey, England. Dodge's attempt to comfort her results in a hug and an establishment of trust:"I won't rob you if you agree not to rape me," offers Penny, and Dodge agrees. As it turns out, she has been collecting his mail and has a letter from the woman who got away, his high school love; her hoarding of his mail has resulted in him not getting the letter which seems to intimate that there is a possibility of reconnection. Anarchy erupts on their street below, and as Dodge and Penny escape on a road trip, he agrees to find her a flight home to die with her family if she helps him find his lost love (I guess because she has the car?). Seeking a Friend for the End of the World then turns into a road trip movie.
My problems with this film are myriad. It squanders two excellent actors (as well as a supporting cast of note) by giving them very little to do. Knightley is especially egregious as I found her performance as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (a term coined by AV Club writer Nathan Rabin to describe this particular archetype) increasingly annoying and unlikable. But, let's not give Steve Carell a pass, who seems to have taken his career and tried to turn it into latter- day Bill Murray with less is more, somnolent, increasingly depressing performances. His arc is even more frustrating, and his performance is ultimately a misfire. The screenplay is wildly inconsistent with titanic rifts between characters healed in less than two minutes of screen time as well as unexplained plot points and clichéd dialogue. The streets that they travel (New Jersey by way of California? Camden has never looked this nice!) are remarkably unlittered and free of looters or those without cars who would want to take their car. And this film is just free of people. Where are all the people? Is everyone at the beach? Does everyone has access to underground bunkers? Are churches overflowing? What is the government's position? Where is the president? Too many questions like these are not even considered in this film.
I wish that director Lorene Scafaria had committed to a darker or funnier vision for this film, one of anarchic moments and unconventional pairings of characters and philosophies. Is it wrong to expect someone in a film about the end of the world to consider (even if it is to ultimately ignore or reject) faith? It is it wrong to consider that some people will use the remaining days to destroy and take whatever they want? (Case in point: the scene in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion where Matt Damon's character watches thieves break into his neighbor's house is infinitely more chilling and real than anything in this film.) Is it wrong to want either character, Dodge or Penny, to exist beyond the confines of a screenplay? Instead, there's a sappy, clichéd film that cheats its audience out of potentially rich and moving scenarios and an adult exploration of how people would approach their imminent destruction. He's dodging life, and she's his lucky penny? Really?
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World might have been a better movie if it focused on the dog tied to Dodge's leg. For my money, I'd rent Joe Verus The Volcano with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for a similarly themed, but much more well-executed, moving, and funny story about the end of one man's world. Dodge this one.
It's the end of the world as they know it, and everyone does not feel fine. People react differently to the news that the asteroid that will incinerate all is headed towards earth in three weeks, and the final space mission could not deflect it from its path (I guess Bruce Willis and the Armageddon-crew failed). In the inspired opening shot, Dodge (Steve Carell) listens, transfixed and unemotional, to the broadcast on his car radio; Nancy, his wife (played by Carell's real-life wife), opens the door and runs off into the night without saying a word. Dodge slouches towards destruction, returning to his apartment, sticking to his routine. As the asteroid approaches, Dodge's cleaning lady keeps showing up to work, confused by Dodge's attempt to tell her that her services won't be needed. Dodge remains one of the few workers left at his insurance company, answering distressed calls, throwing up into his garbage can, and enduring quasi-hilarious staff meetings of five people where a supervisor asks, "Anyone want to be a CFO?" Dodge fights traffic. Dodge attends apocalyptic parties with his friends who curse at each other and their children, press young children into drinking martinis and shots, do heroin as a bucket list item, and clumsily throw themselves at each other. Nothing seems to wake Dodge out of his torpor.
A jolt arrives when Dodge's unknown neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) cries on the fire escape outside of his apartment, seemingly trapped in a contentious relationship, and struggling because she has missed the last trans-Atlantic flight home to her loving parents in Surrey, England. Dodge's attempt to comfort her results in a hug and an establishment of trust:"I won't rob you if you agree not to rape me," offers Penny, and Dodge agrees. As it turns out, she has been collecting his mail and has a letter from the woman who got away, his high school love; her hoarding of his mail has resulted in him not getting the letter which seems to intimate that there is a possibility of reconnection. Anarchy erupts on their street below, and as Dodge and Penny escape on a road trip, he agrees to find her a flight home to die with her family if she helps him find his lost love (I guess because she has the car?). Seeking a Friend for the End of the World then turns into a road trip movie.
My problems with this film are myriad. It squanders two excellent actors (as well as a supporting cast of note) by giving them very little to do. Knightley is especially egregious as I found her performance as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (a term coined by AV Club writer Nathan Rabin to describe this particular archetype) increasingly annoying and unlikable. But, let's not give Steve Carell a pass, who seems to have taken his career and tried to turn it into latter- day Bill Murray with less is more, somnolent, increasingly depressing performances. His arc is even more frustrating, and his performance is ultimately a misfire. The screenplay is wildly inconsistent with titanic rifts between characters healed in less than two minutes of screen time as well as unexplained plot points and clichéd dialogue. The streets that they travel (New Jersey by way of California? Camden has never looked this nice!) are remarkably unlittered and free of looters or those without cars who would want to take their car. And this film is just free of people. Where are all the people? Is everyone at the beach? Does everyone has access to underground bunkers? Are churches overflowing? What is the government's position? Where is the president? Too many questions like these are not even considered in this film.
I wish that director Lorene Scafaria had committed to a darker or funnier vision for this film, one of anarchic moments and unconventional pairings of characters and philosophies. Is it wrong to expect someone in a film about the end of the world to consider (even if it is to ultimately ignore or reject) faith? It is it wrong to consider that some people will use the remaining days to destroy and take whatever they want? (Case in point: the scene in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion where Matt Damon's character watches thieves break into his neighbor's house is infinitely more chilling and real than anything in this film.) Is it wrong to want either character, Dodge or Penny, to exist beyond the confines of a screenplay? Instead, there's a sappy, clichéd film that cheats its audience out of potentially rich and moving scenarios and an adult exploration of how people would approach their imminent destruction. He's dodging life, and she's his lucky penny? Really?
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World might have been a better movie if it focused on the dog tied to Dodge's leg. For my money, I'd rent Joe Verus The Volcano with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for a similarly themed, but much more well-executed, moving, and funny story about the end of one man's world. Dodge this one.