Seeking A Friend For The End of the World (2012)

Summary: A meteor named Matilda is heading for Earth and everyone has less than a few weeks to live. When news of the apocalypse hits, people react in different ways. Some people stick to their routines. Others break law and convention by diving into drugs an alcohol, rioting, or traveling to their loved ones.

Dodge's wife immediately leaves him. On his own in a routine-living life - going to work as an insurance agent, letting the maid clean his apartment, etc. - the middle ager strikes up an odd friendship with a quirky neighbor, Penny.

Best Bits: Dodge is not a risk taker. It takes him one pivotal moment of a guy crash landing on the roof of his car to change the trajectory of his life. Penny is an optimist, leaps at chances, and a big fan of weed. Living in the same apartment building the neighbors don't know each other until Penny is sobbing over a break-up on Dodge's fire escape.
When the city begins to burn down, the two of them go on a road trip to help Dodge track down an old flame. As they get to know each other on the unpredictable road of deaths' inevitable countdown, Carrell and Knightley make a great one true pairing, romantic duo, uncharacteristically jump to a 'favorite relationship in film' category.

I am not sure what comedic drug of talent Carrell takes but he continually amazes me by how well he can play comedy 'straight' as well as drama. Any part he takes on, Carrell really does no wrong with how down to earth his persona is. I was surprised though that Keira Knightley was a perfect match for him. Used to her type cast in historical epics, I found her to be laid back and playful as opposed to meeting expectations of past centuries' elegance and refinement.

Penny is a wild character who wears her heart on her sleeve, and Keira does a great job at staying endearing, tenacious, and fun. For sure her performance would have been one of my top favorites last year (and for the heck of it will be this year). Penny is the catalyst to both characters meeting the end of their lives peacefully. Her openness gives Dodge the courage to be vulnerable with her, and for them both not to be afraid of where their relationship will take them (in this film, til the end of the world). With another actress their pairing could have been just good but she takes them to great.

Why It'sAlmost Perfect: For me, I've always had a problem with how black comedies introduce characters out of nowhere. They aren't ever completely realistic or notably  change the important characters. They are devices for the story to be humorous enough but the characters remain momentarily memorable. An example of these are: an oddball trucker who hires an assassin to kill him, Speck (Penny's family friend) who has a fall-out shelter pad complete with eight other guys, a fleet of electric cars, ammo, and potato chips, and Adam Brody who plays Penny's emotionally stinted boyfriend who uses her as a bullet shield. These aren't necessarily worthy characters to meet, but the supporting actors make them colorful enough to be in sync with the rest of the film.

The movie throws a little bit of everything at the wall and 95% of it sticks. For the first time in a long while of actually noticing the back of dvd covers and the three-worded reviews, I agreed that the movie is smart, funny, and profound.

By the end of Seeking A Friend it's hard to tell how Dodge and Penny are going to meet their end. But when they do, the movie ultimately and uniquely threads together a humorous examination of what would you do when the world went to a hell in a hand basket. Would you hold onto your regular life or throw caution to the wind and wear everything you never wore, tell the truth no matter what, collapse into alcoholism and denial, or get to know a neighbor?