Quick aside: Apologies for being a little late with post yet again. This past week I really got caught between two projects that required my attention. I was juggling multiple duties and things just kept popping up. For now though I’ve gotten everything beaten back and I will do my best to stay on track. Thank you for bearing with me dear readers. And now on to your regularly scheduled review.
Fun fact: the actress playing Steve Carell’s wife in the beginning of this movie is Steve Carell’s actual wife! She doesn’t have any lines since she immediately runs away from Carell never to be seen again.
This could be more upsetting, but an asteroid is going to wipe out all life on Earth in three weeks anyway, so really, what ya gonna do ?
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is essentially a romantic comedy in which the comedy is a shade darker than usual. As Steve Carell and his new friend Keira Knightley go on their quest to make the most of their final days we are treated to some very humorous and sometimes bleak examples of what people may do when the end is near. Some abandon all inhibitions, others party through every minute they have left, and others still seek to bring the end of their lives on even quicker. Kudos to the radio DJ who promises to keep spinning the classic rock hits right up until the apocalypse.
The question this movie asks is what matters most in life? When your days are literally numbered what will it take to look on your life and feel like you’ve had a good run? The movie gives its answer by showing us two opposite people who thought they were getting by well enough until they knew they only had weeks left to get things right. Steve Carell is a cautious, uptight, cynical man. He sees his wife didn’t really love him, and he doesn’t have any other friends or personal connections once she leaves. He’s lived his life being closed off from those around him. He does not jump into the party, he does not go out of his way to reach out to those around him. His life was comfortable and constant albeit plain and dull. Once the asteroid is on its way he comes to realize just how empty and unfulfilling that kind of life really is.
Keira Knightley has a touch of manic pixie dream girl about her but she is so likeable that I can forgive it. She’s free spirited and artsy. Throwing herself into new situations head first, when she feels things she feels them hard. She enjoys hearing your life story and has had several boyfriends float in and out of her life as she finds it easy to love almost everyone, even people who may not treat her the way she deserves. This becomes apparent once she is faced with the end of days and people she thought she could depend on leave her high and dry.
These two lost souls are from opposite ends of the spectrum and neither is happy when their time is up. When they stumble into each other’s lives they pledge to help each other go find the meaning in life they’ve been lacking. Carell wants to go and find an old flame, The One Who Got Away™ an Knightley hopes to reunite with her family in England, the small pocket of people that actually love her unconditionally. They run into characters dealing with the situation in different ways, some darkly absurd and others quietly morose. Carell walks the line between comedy and tragedy expertly while Knightley is a little more over the top but always charismatic.
The heart of the movie, as with any romcom, is watching these two fall for each other. The movie is telling us that the answer lies somewhere in the middle between these two extreme examples. Knightley loves easily, indiscriminately, but never found someone who returned that sentiment to her properly. Carell is emotionally very cautious and slow to love but is devoted to those he does let in. Neither way is wrong per say but to live solely on these fringes creates an imbalance in life. Hopefully these characters would have found their own balance in time if it weren’t for the impending cataclysm. As they find each other they slowly realize that they want to embrace this new relationship they’ve found even over seeking what they thought they needed before. He opens up and finds someone worth loving and she falls for someone who will return her love. They meet in the middle and find their balance just in time and it brings them peace and contentment. The message of the movie is that the true joy in life is to love someone with all your might and have that person love you back just as fiercely. Only having one or the other ultimately doesn’t work. While that may be the general message behind most romcoms setting this one against the end of the world highlights the sheer importance of it in a way that made me connect with this movie more. When the world is literally crumbling around them this is how the characters choose to spend their time and that tells me that it’s perhaps the most worthwhile thing they’ve ever done.
A wise vampire with a soul once said: “If nothing we do matters then all that matters is what we do.”
Other movies I watched this week (potential minor spoilers):
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Guy Ritchie does James Bond in this period piece based on a 60s TV show. Watching reluctant partners Superman and The Lone Ranger get through action scenes in their own unique and contentious ways is entertaining and setting the movie in the 60s instead of modernizing it is a nice touch. Unfortunately it feels a little lifeless in the stretches between the fleeting moments of fun. A good visual style and decent buddy cop dynamic isn’t enough to save this one from being just kind of bland.
Spy – The best spy comedy since Get Smart. (Ok, maybe it’s not a crowded genre.) It’s great to see Melissa McCarthy play a character who actually knows what she’s doing and can be a total badass rather than a bumbling lovable loser. Jason Statham rolls with the joke playing a parody of himself and laughs are to be had as we see how much the villain’s henchmen really hate working for her. Scorpio from The Simpsons she is not. Some of the comedy comes from a flurry of creative expletives and that may turn some people off but I was entertained throughout.
Hobo with a Shotgun – A cousin to the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, this Canadian movie is the product of a promotional contest to make the most exploitative grindhouse style trailer. With super saturated colors, Rutger Hauer cleans up an 80’s city that is so overrun with over the top crime and piles of cocaine that Robocop might need help with it. The fountains of blood, bodies exploding outward, and cartoon characters are all patently ridiculous and I find myself chuckling every time a new shockingly violent and sickening image is played out in front of me. This isn’t exactly a good movie, but it’s certainly an experience if you want to see just how crazy things can get. Shoutout to the Plague, a duo of heavily armored baddies who’s design is so cool and fun that I wish they were in a better movie.
Labyrinth – Yes, I know I’ve seen Labyrinth once many many years ago, but I remembered nothing of it. No images from it struck familiar chords. So in honor of the late great David Bowie I’m counting this rewatch. This film is filled with incredibly imaginative imagery and creatures courtesy of Jim Henson’s shop. Seeing really high quality puppets actually in screen with actors is refreshing in this age of CGI. Watching this movie now I see why I didn’t remember any of it. Simply a parade of one whimsical scene after another this could easily capture the imagination of a child but struggled to hold my interest today. That said, David Bowie oozes charisma and fun in every scene he’s in and isn’t given nearly enough to do. While this movie may not be a love of mine I can absolutely see how it may be near and dear to the hearts of others.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – Chosen this week because it has Alan Rickman in it, this is the story of an 18th century Frenchman with a super schnoz that can identify the most intricate of scents. He decides that the smell of a beautiful woman is the most thrilling scent in the world and sets himself on a quest figuring out how to distill said beautiful women down to their essence to capture that scent in a perfume. This usually involves them being killed, but hey. Rickman plays his part well as he tries to find the murderer, but he is clearly secondary in this movie. I was fascinated by the truly bizarre and surreal premise, but the film drags far too long. Despite the title this movie is not about murder but about obsession and the cinematography lingers and draws out the minute details of the killer’s process in creating perfume to highlight that obsession. It’s effective, but it also gives this film a slow and deliberate pace that just wasn’t to my taste.
Click here for a full list of all the movies I’ve seen so far.