B-
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
2012, 110mins, 15
Director: Lorene Scafaria
Writer: Lorene Scafaria
Cast includes: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, T.J Miller, Martin Sheen, Derek Luke, Patton Oswalt, Adam Brody
UK Release Date: 13th July 2012
Releasing a film under the title “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” is a ballsy gamble, and one that failed to pay dividends for studios Indian Paintbrush and Mandate Pictures last month. The film crashed on its opening weekend and is currently standing on a feeble $6 million domestic total, despite warmish reviews and the presence of recognisable Hollywood players Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. Placing a rom-com within an apocalyptic setting is a smart conceit, one that debuting director Lorene Scafaria has intermittent success with, but upsetting the picture’s stature is the feeling of a missed opportunity. It’s a satisfactory flick, packed with decent acting, moderate imagination and a wonderfully sincere ending, but there are sizeable chunks of the bloated second act which feel like inconsequential padding. It’s as if Scafaria had an hour of excellent material, but in order to fill out her feature length ambitions, needlessly cooked up another half-baked 50 minutes. The odd yet endearing dynamic between Carell and Knightley combined with the incisive pitch keeps “Seeking a Friend for the End of the Wold” consistently palatable, but it’s clear the picture could have been so much more.
The end of days is nigh, a 70 mile wide Meteorite named Matilda
plummeting toward Earth, mankind’s final attempts to prevent it amounting to
failure. This is the news Dodge (Steve Carell) receives as his wife Linda
(Nancy Carell, in a cheeky cameo) ups and leaves him, running into the night
without so much as a word. A heartbroken Dodge decides to hold his daily
routine as the planet’s life expectancy diminishes around him, bemusement,
suicide and a desire for instant gratification the most common reactions from friends
and colleagues. One evening whilst looking through mementos, Dodge meets neighbour
Penny (Keira Knightley), a spirited young woman with an unusually upbeat outlook
given the circumstances. Penny convinces Dodge he needs to go and find his
first love, a High-School sweetheart, and in return Dodge promises to try and
reunite Penny with her family. Together they set off across the roaming
countryside, encountering a range of characters and situations that help put
their current situation in perspective.
Scafaria is clearly more comfortable with a pen than a
camera, her dialogue and characters are subtly quite rich, but her editorial
skills and general panache for visual storytelling are more blunted. “Seeking a
Friend for the End of the World” should be applauded for upholding an honest
and well intentioned tone for the majority of its runtime, a rarity for an
R-rated comedy (although this is one of the softest R-ratings I can recall in
recent years), yet portions of the narrative definitely frustrate. The middle
segment is a structural nightmare, Scafaria haphazardly chucking in characters
and notions that she has no proper intention of exploring. For instance a past
boyfriend of Penny’s arrives on the scene, seemingly introduced as a plot
device and potential comedic foil, yet Scafaria lingers around him for too
long, threatening to do something interesting, but never quite finding the
focus or conviction. It’s missteps like this that render the movie both
sporadically forgettable and undeniably overlong, there’s no reason why the film
had to pass the 90 minute mark, yet the artist drags it out for nearly two
hours. Maybe it’s her relatively green status (Scafaria’s biggest credit prior
to this was penning 2008’s divisive teen comedy “Nick and Norah’s Infinite
Playlist”), but for whatever reason there are enough fundamental wobbles to
prevent this adequate vehicle from ascending to the greatness its central
premise teases.
The setting is established succinctly and vibrantly,
Scafaria even letting a little rioting, violence and drug abuse trickle into
her otherwise innocent work. The connection between Carell and Knightley also
works rather brilliantly; it’s one of the more weirdly inspired casting decisions
of the last year. Carell is understated, funny and likeable (it’s a similar turn
to the one he gave in last year’s superior “Crazy Stupid Love”) and Knightley is
quirky and lively without being irritating. The arcs that Scafaria lays out
feel organic and truthfully pieced together, a strength that lends the picture’s
inevitable denouement a genuine hint of tender tragedy. It’s no big spoiler to
confirm that the world does indeed end come the finale, but that’s never the
primary fixation of this movie. Instead it’s about a journey and more
importantly a relationship, the latter done with such assurance and attention
to emotional detail that the final sequence is genuinely heart-breaking. The
fact Carell and Knightley up their otherwise totally respectable game for this
moment doesn’t hurt either.
The comedic tone jumps between breezy and amiable to
something much darker with ease. There are smirks to be derived from the
desperate reactions of certain individuals; it is after all strange to see mainstream
fare mine laughter from topics like assisted suicide, yet “Seeking a Friend for
the End of the World” does just that, and does it enjoyably. It’s a pleasant movie,
which occasionally rises to stations befitting of its concrete resolution, but
regularly it just feels like an above average and rather ordinary multiplex offering.
There’s indisputably more in the tank, but hey, when it’s half-full with
something this digestible, there’s no real sense in complaining.
A Review by Daniel Kelly, 2012
1 comments:
A totally uneven film, but somewhat lifted up by Carell and Knightley’s performances. Hopefully, Keira picks up more comedic roles for her because she’s actually pretty damn good at them believe it or not. Good review Daniel.
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