Seeking a Friend For the End of the World

Friday evening my wife and I, as well as her sister went to see the new Steve Carell movie. Carell is surely one of the more likable comedic actors these days and I thought the premise of the movie looked good.

The movie begins with Carell's character Dodge driving with his wife when a news bulletin comes on the radio advising that efforts by a space shuttle mission to divert the asteroid known as Matilda has failed. This intones the announcer was the last chance to prevent the asteroids collision with Earth.

As they sit there, stunned, Dodge's wife gets out of the car, evidently deciding that spending the last 21 days of her life with him is not what she wants.

One might expect the world would go crazy, and they would be right but for Dodge he just continues. He goes to work, selling insurance. Eventually even the silliness of this is apparent to him. He goes to a party at a friend's house. His friend's wife played by Connie Britton wants to fix him up. The woman is very willing but Dodge cannot make himself spend the last three weeks of his life getting to know someone. This scene is actually quite funny. With the world coming to an end there are no limits. The party progresses, the children are taught to drink alcohol, we hear someone say, " Hey everyone we are going to do heroin." In short a dark but funny view of the end of the world.

After Dodge arrives at home he sees a young lady out on his fire escape. As he opens the window the young lady embraces him in tears. He invites her in, she introduces herself as Penny who has just broke up with her boyfriend, they lived upstairs in the building.

Penny would like to get home to see her family in England, Dodge decides he would like to revisit his first love. Over time they develop a friendship. The truth is for a movie about the end of the world not as much happens as you would expect.

With all that however the movie is very sweet. I thought it was one of the movies that was just understated enough to be more than the sum of its parts. Penny, played by Kiera Knightly , accompanies Dodge as he travels back to find his lost love. Kiera Knightly has been in many movies, I cannot think of any of them, but I must say that I found her in this role to be very attractive and likable. Perhaps Carell's likability rubs off on her. In any case Penny is a joy.

Another fine part of the movie is when Dodge goes to see his father. His father, played by Martin Sheen, had left the family when he was a boy and he had not seen him since as he wanted no part of a reconciliation. After some talk it is agreed that sorry is sorry and they reconcile. The scene of them having dinner is more heartwarming than would be expected.

Eventually as they approach the current home of Olivia, the first love, Dodge realizes that his true love is right there with him. This is why he took her to his father, who has a plane and can fly her home to her family. After placing her asleep in the plane he goes home to his apartment. Soon thereafter however Penny appears, knowing that she only wants to be with him in this time.

By this time the end is near. They lay on the bed and as they speak of their love they hear the sound of the asteroid coming in and then the screen goes white.

My wife liked the movie, my sister in law could not get over the difference in the ages of Dodge and Penny. Seems kind of silly to me, with the end of the world weeks away I do not think an age difference really matters.

I liked this movie very much.