Seeking a Friend for the End of the World [Blu-ray]

Earlier this year there was "Melancholia", the ambitious and at times entertaining but also pretentious take on "the end of the world" as envisioned by director Lars von Trier, and now we get a completely different perspective on the very same topic, as written and directed by Lorene Scafaria.

"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" (95 min.) starts off brilliantily. In the first minute of the movie we see Dodge (played by Steve Carell) and his wife sitting in the car, listening to the radio announcement that asteroid 'Matilda' cannot be stopped and will hit earth in 3 weeks, ending life as we know it. Dodge's wife looks at him, and then leaves the car, literally running away from him. What a beginning! Dodge eventually meets Penny (played by Kiera Knightley), and regardless of their age difference, they strike a friendship. Dodge and Penny hit the road, among others to look up Dodge's HS sweetheart and to find a plane for penny so she can rejoin her family in England. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out, but let's just say things don't pan out exactly as Dodge and Penny thought they would.

This is an outstanding movie from start to finish. In the midst of all the numbing summer blockbusters that Hollywood unleaches upon us, here's actually a movie that actually speaks to me. At times I laughed, at times I teared up, and the movie went by in the blink of an eye. I don't know that Steve Carell has ever been better than here, playing the "Joe Six-Pack" average guy with even more restraint (and that's a compliment). Kudos also to Kiera Kightley. Likewise for the oustanding soundtrack (I may never listen to the Hollies "The Air That I Breathe" in the same way again). But the ultimate credit must go to writer-director Lorene Scafaria, making her directing debut here. Can't wait to see what she will do next. Meanwhile, "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" is HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The trend for today's movies is to reveal the entire plot from start to finish including all the best lines compressed into a 2 minute 30 second trailer. The trailer for this film is awesome - fast paced, great music track (we're on a road to nowhere), and really funny. Well all of that stuff happens in about the first 20 minutes of the film. Then this focus/Indian paintbrush film settles into an examination of two questions: What if you found out you had 21 days to live? Along with the rest of humankind?

The basic plot of this movie is: man with long history of woman problems gives up on romance after his wife leaves him and he finds out the world is coming to an end, people try unsuccessfully to set him up, he meets a much younger female neighbor who has a sleep disorder and awful judgment in men, they pick up a dog and go on a road trip each on a quest for that one last thing they want to do in this life. And they get to really know each other along the way.

It is at times serious and contemplative and other times shifts to gallows humor. The exterior world which starts out with crowds and rioting fades away as the film progresses to focus solely on one man and one woman. The relationship that builds over the course of the movie between the main characters, Dodge and Penny, along with the dog they pick up along the way dubbed Sorry, is sweet and believable.

If you like Steve Carell's brand of humor or films that cut past the BS and examine the stuff that matters, give this one a try.

As soon as I saw the title for this movie, I knew it was going to be a great film. It's really an exploration of Existentialism. Whether we die from a meteor crashing into the Earth or we live out our lives in peace and good health - we all must eventually die. So this film is really the sped-up version of the important responsible decisions and acts of genuine authenticity that we have to face in our lives.

There's two things you'll find interesting in this film. One is how others around the central characters deal with their imminent demise. There's nihilistic hedonism. There's people who simply cannot process what's happening and just carry on with their now meaningless lives (that is, acting in "bad faith"). There's the anti-humanist, devout believer who's content in their prison cell - satisfied that the world is finally coming to an end. There's people who commit shocking suicides, and those that hire someone else to put them out of their misery. It's not exactly a comedy. Like Dodge's friend's wife tells him, "You're not getting out of this one."

The second thing that you'll find interesting is how Dodge finds a type of "salvation" inside all this doom. And I won't spoil that for you, but I'll just say that it's going to require an active, authentic decision on his part about how he wants to spend his last moments.

Also, thank-you so much to the film's writer(s) for not chickening out and giving this movie a fake, "Hollywood", happy ending. I highly recommend this movie. It will wake you up to life and its amazing possibilities.

P.S. ultimately, Existentialism is a failed philosophy, but that doesn't make it a bad one. The last half of the 20th century was filled with European (Continental) philosophers explaining exactly *how* Existentialism is failed. But I will leave that as an exercise to the truly curious and thoughtful.