Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Tinsel

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Review of ‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World:’ It’s the End and We Feel Fine

Review of ‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World:’ It’s the End and We Feel Fine

Last updated on: June 22, 2012 at 8:20 am by Rebecca Cusey

Review of ‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World:’ It’s the End and We Feel Fine 2012-06-22T08:20:58-06:00 Rebecca Cusey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lorene Scafaria, writer and director of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, had her own brush with apocalyptic loneliness.

“When 9/11 happened,” she told me when we sat down in Washington DC, “I had just moved from New York a week before it to LA where I knew nobody. I was sort of stranded out there by myself and I was just desperate for human contact, calling up old friends who I hadn’t talked to for a long time.”

The tone of the experience found its way into her script. As the movie opens, the last hope for the survival of humanity fails. A space shuttle sent to intercept an asteroid, ala 1998’s Armageddon, is lost, and with it hopes of warding off an extinction level event. The world has mere weeks left. At that very moment, Dodge’s (Steve Carell) wife decides she cannot spend one more of her suddenly limited minutes with him and literally runs away.

He’s all alone for the end of the world.

A neighbor, the much younger Penny (Kiera Knightly), finds her relationship equally incapable of sustaining her through the end and desperately regrets the whims that placed her an ocean away from her beloved British family.

The unlikely pair team up, as Scafaria put it “weaving through the chaos.”

“I had fun trying to explore who they would come across and what weirdos they would meet along the way and how everybody is handling everything differently.”

The dark humor of the film comes from the combination of a lifting of consequences and a panic of approaching death. An insurance office doggedly keeps selling insurance, utterly useless, after all, because who’s going to pay out and who’s going to collect? An upper class dinner group shoots its first heroin, finally doing the bad things their ambition had stunted. And a Friendly’s (think TGIFriday’s) restaurant becomes far too friendly with its customers.

Scafaria polled friends to find out how they would react: “Most people I talked to sex, drugs, and rock and roll is going to take place. People are going to eat their faces off. But it seemed like the thing people mostly want is friends and family, friends and family, your loved ones.”

For Dodge and Penny, however, who are their loved ones? Dodge no longer has family and Penny is far from hers.

“For me,” Scarafia said, “In terms of what death is like, you get really surprised by who is with you. Who’s not with you is shocking, but who’s sitting next to you when the big one hits, it’s like ‘You’re there for me?’ Sometimes it’s a surprise. Love doesn’t always look like what you thought it would.”

At its heart, the love story is a metaphor for life. Time is limited and the asteroid only speeds up and consolidates the inevitable. Why waste time with bitterness, as in Dodge’s anger toward his absent father (Martin Sheen) or regrets, as in Penny’s wasted time away from her family? A life well-lived looks similar whether it’s ninety decades or cut tragically short: Love, reconciliation, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.

This quiet, well-acted and well-written movie is one of the best of 2012 so far and it’s seemingly hopeless ending nevertheless brims with hope for us all. What more can we ask than to lie down for the last time with the love of our lives, secure in the knowledge that we have lived well?

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is rated R for language, some sexuality, drug use, and brief violence. Material is not graphic. Bad behavior is contrasted with good. Could be appropriate for older, mature teens.

seeking a friend for the end of the world

Steve Carell

Previous Post

June 19, 2012

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Teaser Trailer

Next Post

June 21, 2012 Review: Surprising 'Brave' Tells Sweet Tale of Family Love

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Becky's Picks Children's Movies DVD releases Entertainment News Faith on Film Featured Hunger Games In Theaters Interviews Life, Etc. Mixed Nuts Movie Reviews Poliflix Scroogewatch slider Television Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 April 2011 March 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Ananias and Sapphira died after lying to the Holy Spirit about their offering.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE