Seeking a Friend for the End of the World MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

Steve Carell, Keira Knightly. Comedy/drama/romance. Written & directed by Lorene Scafaria.

FILM SYNOPSIS: The world’s citizens discover that they have less than a month before a meteor destroys Earth. Upon learning that the end is near, an insurance agent’s wife leaves him and he is left alone to face Armageddon. But fate steps in and he meets a quirky and pretty next door neighbor. She agrees to help him find a lost love from his youth, and he knows someone with a plane to take her home to her family. So a road trip begins and they meet lots of other quirky folk. They are a mismatched pair, but guess what happens?

It is a humorous, often touching tale of a mismatched couple finding love in the nick of time.

PREVIEW REVIEW: I don’t consider myself pious. In fact, I’m probably earthier than I should be. But despite the intent of this film’s director, I can’t just view an end-of-the-world premise without wondering why the characters are never seen examining their religious convictions. Are they so oblivious to spiritual matters than it would never occur to them to seek God even when they know they are about to become extinct? I know, filmmakers don’t want to deal with religious matters in films. So why attempt such a profound premise? Surely, even the most hedonistic among us are going to consider the concept of eternity and where they will be after the big bang.

The mere fact that people are still seeking their own satisfaction, even as the world is about to be destroyed, says something about our selfish and limited nature. Rather than seeking a last love for a couple of weeks, shouldn’t we be seeking the will of God? Shouldn’t we be attempting to aid others to find a relationship with Christ rather than satisfy brief whimsies? I don’t’ know that I’d do that, or how, but doesn’t that seem what a man attempting to put Christ on the thrown of his life should do? So, you can see why I would find a film about Earth’s final days a bit shallow when the planet’s doomed future is merely a setting for another story of a mismatched quirky couple finding each other.

Still, the actors do a nice job; there are self-sacrifices and moments of healing forgiveness portrayed; and I am glad these two found each another (it’s the romantic in me).

Another question: Why does a romantic comedy contain R-rated content? Doesn’t it seem odd that today’s filmmakers can’t address this genre without injecting the same crudity and obscenity found in a gangster film?

Romantic and stirring DVD Alternatives: Splendor in the Grass, Love with the Proper Stanger, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Anonymous Content