Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Critics might be divided on the new comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, but I think those with a strong awareness of the topic might enjoy the movie more – I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it when it opens in Australia. But with no release date set for us down here, I suspect it will come out in late December, when I’m in my bunker…
The premise is excellent – what would you do in a world that only has a few weeks of existence left. For the purposes of this film I presume the asteroid is going to 100% obliterate us, rather than being potentially survivable by a lucky few. And of course the lead, Steve Carell, is newly single – because the standard response should be that you’ll stay at home and hug your family.
It looks like one of the sources of humor will be that some people carry on doing what they are doing, despite their being no future. It does include riots and survivalists, but don’t expect any gritty depictions! And it also includes plenty of other characters indulging in wild excesses 🙂
Hollywood Reporter doesn’t mind this film:
Her end-of-days plot is essentially an allegory for everyone’s limited lives, the accelerated deadline adding an extra edge of futility to most human activity, whether sweating at the gym or striving for promotion at work …a witty, warm-hearted and impressively original addition to the rom-com ranks.
L.A. Times hates it:
If this is what the end of the world looks like, don’t bother to stay awake.
Still, it gets a healthy 7/10 at IMDB, versus 53% from the critics according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Carell the actor has decided that he would just eat a lot if doomsday was upon us:
“Of course, then you start thinking, well, is anything going to be open? You know, I’d love to go to a great restaurant, have a wonderful meal. Yeah, like they’re going to stay there, in order to serve me a wonderful meal,” Carell said. “I would eat so much crap if I knew that we just had a couple of weeks left. I just want deep-fried. I want pasta. I’m going to carbo-load for doomsday.”
Honestly, if somebody said 20 days and then a meteorite is going to destroy the earth, I think I’d be so preoccupied with whether it was going to hurt or not that I’d just be terrified.
