Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

This is hands down, the best end-of-the-world movie I've seen. It was the only flick that delved into the normalcy of chaos--people going on with their routines, riots happening in the street, the indulgence allowed by knowing that "forever" is 21 days later (orgies, divorces). While Keira Knightley's character, Penny was a weird criss-cross between Sam (Natalie Portman) from Garden State, Sam (Molly Ringwald) from Sixteen Candles and Ramona Flowers, I found her surprisingly endearing. I was very hesitant toward liking her character at first because there are already so many "crazybeautiful", record-loving, crazy, quirky female characters out there--but in the end it was like "Oh, what the hell. Just because something's been done before, it doesn't mean it can't be done again." And it was done very, very well in this movie.

Steve Carell (who played the subtly dashing leading man, Dodge) was great here too. While again, I felt like this role was something he'd done before--playing the whole "I'm lonely, I'm a loser, I'm old" type character (which he showed us he was great at in The Forty-Year-Old Virgin)--it didn't make him any less effective. Steve Carell has a very subtle range: in this movie he came off amazingly melancholic and the fact that weird, "funny" things were happening to him made it even more effective, contrasting the situation with the character. 

I feel like good narratives always balance themselves out and work within their context. While this movie feel extremely familiar--from the quirky characters down to their names (Penny and Dodge, come on)--the fact that it was about the end of the world as we know it somehow made me accept that familiarity, without a question. 

I don't want to say too much about this because I know a lot of people haven't seen it yet, but I will say that it was deeply, deeply affecting and that if the world does end, it will most probably be like this. I give this a 4.5/5 stars. :)