MOVIE REVIEW: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Director: Lorene Scafaria
Writer: Lorene Scafaria (screenplay)

Cast:
Brad Morris         Radio Announcer
Steve Carell         Dodge
Nancy Carell         Linda
Mark Moses         Anchorman
Roger Aaron Brown     Alfred
Rob Huebel         Jeremy
Trisha Gorman         Crying Woman
Keira Knightley     Penny
Adam Brody         Owen
Tonita Castro         Elsa
Leslie Murphy         Amy
Connie Britton         Diane
Rob Corddry         Warren
Kasey Campbell         Danny
Melanie Lynskey     Karen


World-wide headlines read, "Space Shuttle Deliverance Mission Failed! World Ends in Three Weeks." This is no fake evangelical scare. This is an astronomical event with a sphincter factor of 9.9. Asteroid Matilda is coming and she's taking us out when she arrives.

So what are the doomed denizens of the planet going to do for the last twenty-one days of their life?

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World shows the best and worst of humankind. Looting in the streets as citizens play the game of "he who dies with the most stuff wins," abandoning homes, pets and families, and then, there's Dodge.

Dodge is in crisis. His wife's just left him for another man and he's vulnerable and alone at the worst possible time. When he gets a neighbor's letter by accident, he returns the envelope to her only to discover the somewhat ditzy English bird has three years of his mail that she's forgotten to deliver.

Among those letters are some from the girl who got away. Dodge now has a mission. He's also got a partner in his journey, the neighbor who wants to get home to her family in England.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World earned high reviewer and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn't really that common, though most people I know haven't even heard of the film. If you enjoy high-irony count dark humor, you're going to like this film. The experience really causes you to think about your own life and what you'd like to do with it.

What would you do if you knew you had twenty-one days left? What would you do if the world had only that much time?

On my ratings scale, the film was worth the matinee price; however, I doubt I could handle seeing it again.

Rebecca McFarland Kyle, July 2012