Release date: June 22, 2012
Written and Directed by: Lorene Scafaria
Cast: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Tonita Castro, Rob Corddry, Gillian Jacobs, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynsky, T.J. Miller, Patton Oswalt
If the film’s premise is true, and the planet is due to go poof! in three weeks’ time, then run, do not walk, to the very next showing of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. If you hurry, you might be able to squeeze in a second viewing … because yes, it’s that good.
Filmmaker Lorene Scafaria previously wrote the screenplay to 2008′s Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Infinite, indeed. Now, as a flip side, she depicts a couple whose lives are leashed to the immediate present. Three weeks, to be exact. With no time to waste, Scafaria gets right to it, as Steve Carell’s Dodge and his wife Linda (Carell’s real-life spouse, actress Nancy Carell) sit in their car, listening to a radio broadcast that confirms the worst: In less than a month, a 70-mile-wide asteroid will collide with Earth, obliterating all of humanity in the twinkle, twinkle of a star. For once, those street-corner zealots have it right: The end is most decidedly near.
And boom! dead on course, people spring into a variety of actions. Dodge’s wife jumps out of the car, running away for good. Amid the deniers, rioters, survivalists, optimists and hedonists, we meet Dodge’s friend Warren (Rob Corddry), who urges his five-year-old kids to drink alcohol, coaching them to “fight through the burn.” Another pal (Patton Oswalt), celebrates the fact that women are his for the taking, be they married, diseased or what-the-hell, even related. A housekeeper (a spot-on Tonita Castro) is so steeped in denial that when the good-natured Dodge suggests that she should no longer come in to clean his house, she’s shocked and offended. “You’re firing me?”
[For the full review, and Kimberly's out-of-this-world rating, please click here]