I just got back from seeing Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. The trailers for it really doesn't show what it really is: a sad fucking movie. Maybe the first movie in a while that's really hit me.
Everything was going just fine. Little laughs here and there, nothing (too) raunchy. Then they finally hit the road and that's when everything slowly shifts to drama.
Mostly sold on the movie, I spoiler'd my only complaint about it under "Major spoiler".
Major spoiler - read at your own risk if you care:
Romance between Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) wasn't played out well. I would've preferred that they remain friends. It honestly would've been really refreshing not to see the male and female character get together, but I guess the writer couldn't resist. Nonetheless, the end with them lying in bed together (no, not post-coital) waiting for the asteroid to hit was still a good scene to end the movie off with. Seeing Penny clearly scared with Dodge having her tell her life's story as the chaos was reaching them (wasn't visible, but you hear the sound of destruction) was good.
For the record: they don't end up reuniting with Olivia ("the one that got away"). Instead, Dodge leaves a note on her doorstep and leaves, realizing that Penny is the girl he had always been looking for.
Minor spoiler (really minor):
In one scene, after finding out that Dodge's wife had been cheating on him, he bought window cleaner and got drowsy off cough syrup. He tried to kill himself by drinking the window cleaner, and managed to pass out. He woke up with a note on him saying "Sorry", and a dog on his feet. Dodge decides to name the dog Sorry.
Seeking a Friend is easily my favorite movie so far of 2012. Even with its complete sense of fatalism that pervades every scene, it somehow taps into a raw human optimism that makes it that much more powerful once you realize just what the movie is really trying to say and what is lost in the process.
Seeking a Friend is easily my favorite movie so far of 2012. Even with its complete sense of fatalism that prevades every scene, it somehow taps into a raw human optimism that makes it that much more powerful once you realize just what the movie is really trying to say and what is lost in the process.
