In SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, as an asteroid nears Earth, Dodge (Steve Carell) finds himself alone and decides to take a road trip to find “the one that got away”–his high school sweetheart. His free-spirited neighbor, Penny (Keira Knightley), who just went through her own breakup, goes with him. Along the way, with the clock ticking on Earth’s doom, Dodge finds more life and love than he’d experienced for most of his adult life. The movie is reminiscent of a similar earlier Canadian film, LAST NIGHT, but the similarity ends at the basic concept. The movie is quite funny as the people around Dodge engage in end-of-the-world sex and violence, everybody determined to go out with a bang, and Dodge just can’t go along with it, sticking with his old routines and even reporting every day to the insurance company where he works. It’s sweet, in that Dodge finally gets to experience rich, genuine human feeling he’s been denied for so long. And it’s sad, as everything ends. It’s a great movie on many levels, although some may find the almost abrupt switch from bittersweet joy to existential sadness jarring and even a little haunting. Recommended.
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