Director: Lorene Scafaria
Starring: Steve Carrell, Keira Knightley, Martin Sheen, Rob Corddry, William Petersen
Running Time: 97 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Trailer, Outtakes, A Look Inside Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, Music For The End Of The World: What’s On Your Playlist
It seems every other week there is a ‘quirky’ comedy/drama released. Following recent cinematic outings RUBY SPARKS, LIBERAL ARTS, and THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, it is SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD’s turn as it is released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday.
With a 70-mile-wide asteroid due to destroy Earth in three weeks, Dodge (Carrell) is abandoned by wife Linda (ironically Carrell’s real-life wife Nancy). His life in pieces he continues his insurance sales job whilst wallowing in self pity and waiting for armageddon. A few doors down Penny (Knightley) lives with her questionable fella and meets Dodge by chance following a breakup from said fella. After the initial meeting Dodge learns Penny has a letter for him from his high school sweetheart Olivia – the one that got away. With nothing else left, the pair set out to find Olivia and get Penny back to England to her parents, driving across the country to Dodge’s friend’s plane.
First-time directors live or die by the confidence on show, and of course the quality of their product: Lorene Scafaria delivers on both levels with SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, crafting a well paced, warm, and extraordinarily likeable film. Leading from the front Carrell and Knightley give splendidly reserved performances in roles that could so easily have been over-played. There is stellar support from some big names, such as William Petersen, Rob Corddry, and Martin Sheen. But make no mistake, the film belongs to the leads and their furry companion.
Along with the performances, Scafaria’s script takes the spotlight: fantastically simple, but very smart it is the perfect tone for what is a silly, but plausible premise based around love. The apocalypse is a means to heighten the humanistic search for love but portrayed in a beautiful way – it works and never patronises the audience. Put simply SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is bloody brilliant: warm, full of love, and with the ability to make a grown man cry (a few times) it’s massively recommended for all the romantics out there, and may even appeal to the cynics.
Extras: Sadly the extras don’t match up with some unfunny outtakes, a too short behind the scenes, and a pointless music-based featurette that regurgitates parts of the behind the scenes doc. In truth a disappointment but when the film is so strong it really doesn’t matter.
SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is released on Blu-ray and DVD November 5th.
