Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

An asteroid heads towards Earth, giving the planet's inhabitants just three weeks to say their goodbyes to loved ones and wrap up any unfinished business.

When his wife leaves him upon hearing the catastrophic news, Dodge (Carell) goes about his daily business, attending his day job and spending his final days in indifferent isolation. Until, that is, Dodge finds an unlikely companion for the end of the world in kooky neighbour Penny (Knightley), who encourages Dodge to seek out a former lover and embark on a road trip to find ‘the one that got away'.

Lorene Scafaria's movie follows a similar narrative to her former penned feature, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, in which the protagonists wander from one scene to another, interacting with the occasional oddball before eventually discovering love. The problem is, where Nick and Norah had the very charming and very sweet duet that was Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, Seeking a Friend has the very charming and sweet Steve Carell and a very miscast Keira Knightley.

Tapping in to eccentric kooks that came before her (Eternal Sunshine's Clementine comes to mind), Keira has neither the acting chops nor the girl next-door charm to pull this off convincingly. Her performance, plum-mouthed and eloquently British, just doesn't sit well with the rest of the picture, and it certainly doesn't conjure up any sort of chemistry with her leading man.

Knightley's miscasting jars in those quieter scenes when things could have proved profoundly moving, and the total lack of chemistry essentially makes for a wholly unbelievable love story (on top of the asteroid/end-of-the-world plot that is).

But it's not all Keira's fault. The script generally lacks laughs and an emotional punch (two essential ingredients for an apocalypse rom-com) and the final act descends into sentimental nonsense. Still, a very funny turn by Cloverfield's T.J. Miller and some heavyweight assistance by Martin Sheen nearly very nearly makes witnessing the end of the world worthwhile.

Overall Verdict: Turns out Earth's final days aren't that emotional or indeed that funny.

Reviewer: Lee Griffiths