#Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World Finds Hope In The Apocalypse

It may be odd to read this next sentence after just describing the film as about hope, but “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” doesn’t hesitate to rip the Band-Aid off right away and deliver the bad news in its opening moments: a 70 mile-wide asteroid is headed for Earth, the shuttle mission to save the world has ended in disaster, and humanity only has a scant three weeks left before it all ends. No muss, no fuss, and no pretense otherwise.

This doom-filled news report — casually delivered on a classic rock radio station before abruptly (and hilariously) switching over to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by the Beach Boys — immediately has an overwhelming effect on all the characters in the film. Steve Carell’s Dodge essentially shuts down, caught between running away from both his unfulfilling life and the inescapable fate bearing down on everyone versus giving in to the most existential case of ennui anyone has ever suffered from. His wife Linda (Nancy Carell, the actor’s real-life wife), meanwhile, takes one clear-eyed look at him for the first time in her life and promptly runs for the hills, choosing to spend her last days free from the confines of an unsatisfying marriage. It’s equal parts amusing and depressing to watch this early examination of humanity forced to come to terms with its own mortality, lending a touch of darkness to the more lighthearted proceedings that follow.

Dodge, a loner by nature who is also terrified of dying alone, finds himself being set up by his friends for a pointless relationship with Karen (Melanie Lynskey) to get over his failed marriage. But just as he resigns himself to a final three weeks spent wallowing in his absolute worst fear, he suddenly runs into two major developments that change everything: the appearance of his incorrigible neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley), and a letter mistakenly sent to her from Dodge’s old flame Olivia, the “one who got away” who’s now hoping to reconnect one last time before the very end. It’s never too late to find love, the movie seems to be arguing, but Dodge eventually learns this lesson in a much different way than he ever could’ve expected.