Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is not the film advertised by its trailer, hence my inclusion of the trailer here instead of the poster, so we can look back at the merry jaunt through the end of existence we were promised, but not delivered. It's not a fault of the movie; rather this is a movie that could probably not have been properly trailed and the trailer makers did what they could.
Bittersweet is a word that I don't use too often; like 'comedy drama' it's usually used idly to describe something that doesn't fit into the usual categories.In this case, however, both of those terms are apt. Seeking a Friend... takes a serious subject and treats it with appropriate dramatic weight through comedy. It balances fatalism and hope, even in the most hopeless of scenarios, in a sedate exploration of the things that are truly important.
It is a film, one of the few, that actually made me cry.
Steve Carrell is perfect here, his trademark hangdog expression evoking with Dodge the passive despair of a man whose life fell apart years ago but he's only just starting to realise it, especially compared to the brittle energy of Kiera Knightley's unfulfilled extrovert Penny.
The supporting cast are equally effective, each group representing a different response to the coming apocalypse: Dodge's friends desperately trying to escape the futility of what they've worked for, the manic energy of the Friendsies crowd, the stoic avoidance of the survivalists; William Petersen's brief turn as a truck driver with a terminal illness who has found new life in knowing that his prognosis is now longer than the world's. And then there is Martin Sheen in a quietly affecting almost-cameo as Dodge's father.
There's no flash, even the end comes without effects shots, and it's the stronger film for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment