Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Good "Friend": Keira Knightley and Steve Carell
fall in love one last time.

“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” is an unlikely romantic comedy wrapped up in a grim, doomsday tale of mankind having only three weeks left to survive thanks to a runaway asteroid hurtling towards Earth.

Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, the movie opens in New York City where a soft-spoken insurance salesman named Dodge Petersen (Steve Carell) loses his wife when she abruptly abandons him after hearing the latest news about the impending apocalypse. Left all alone, Dodge wearily drags himself back to his empty apartment with only his sad memories to keep him company.

Meanwhile outside, the end of the world has seemingly splintered the harried denizens into categories ranging from suicidal (people hurling themselves out of windows), to destructive (streets become a dangerous snarl of rioters, looters and arsonists), to hedonistic (wild parties feature unlimited, guiltless sex and drugs).

Desperate to escape, Dodge leaves the Big Apple and heads for Delaware, where his onetime high school sweetheart, an enigmatic figure named Olivia, may still have feelings for him. Accompanying him is Penny (Keira Knightley), an attractive and amiably scatterbrained neighbor who hopes to travel to England to see her parents one last time.

It’s not a stretch to predict that Dodge and Penny will eventually fall in love, but what’s more interesting about their relationship is how the affection between them grows based largely on shared feelings of sadness and regret. Both are fresh from breakups (Penny just split with her boyfriend) and both feel a deep need to reconnect with parents (Dodge is still tormented by his dad leaving him as a child).

“Seeking” recovers from a messy first fifteen minutes—in which the madness and chaos of looming planetary destruction threatened to overwhelm any attempt at thoughtful introspection—and becomes a quiet contemplation of subtle themes, especially abandonment and loneliness. The romance between Dodge and Penny is like a gentle mingling of two lost, fragile souls, sweet and poignant. Even a cute, small dog that tags along with the two characters during the film has been deserted, having been left tied to Dodge’s foot when he passes out in the park at one point.

The key performances are highlights. Keira Knightley is warm and wonderful as the sometimes bubbly yet vulnerable Penny. And as the melancholy Dodge, the always impressive Steve Carell continues—along with “Dan in Real Life” and “Crazy, Stupid Love”—to establish himself as the latest likable everyman of the cinema, a Jimmy Stewart for the new millennium.

Despite being fairly fatalistic, “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” remains a genuinely sweet love story with a surprisingly original bend. These days, maybe you have to die to get a fresh idea in the movies.