Tuesday 24 July 2012

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Film Review

Of all the apocalyptic films that I have seen, from Armageddon to I Am Legend - none have been more thought provoking than Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. This is probably because it takes the piss out of the situation. The film sees the unlikely pairing of Steve Carell and Keira Knightley when the Earth is given an exact day of death - three weeks from the films beginning. The neighbours, Dodge and Penny, pair up to achieve their pre-apocalypse dreams.

Dodge is on a mission to re-unite with the first woman he ever loved (awww) whilst Penny has the simple desire of getting home, to England. The pair have quite a journey in the now chaotic orgy-fest world, there are twists and the film is completely hilarious at points - other parts are tear-worthy and the ending was pretty lame ... well it's kind of Marmite-esque - It creates mixed opinions. One thing I was shocked at is that for once I found neither Steve Carell or Keira Knightley annoying. In the case of Carell he is not his usual try-hard self, and in the case of Knightley I realised that it is because she is not her usual pout faced self! - she has learnt other facial expression, I kid you not. 

Thoughts Provoked...

The film provokes thoughts by not only taking the piss out of the situation, but looking at it from another angle. Most apocalyptic film see the point of view of the President trying to save the day with a spaceship loaded with the worlds leading astronauts and sciencey people. This film however, sees an average bloke whose wife dips out of their marital contract three weeks before she would have achieved her vow 'till death' who struggles to take in the fact that the world is ending, and continues to go to work each day. This is where the thought provoking begins. 

In the film Dodge continues going to work for a week or so, he drives past men mowing the lawn, and visits friends who encourage their child to drink alcohol. In reality, who the hell would go to work? Nobody would need money and would have nowhere to spend it because nobody would be going to work. It would become a dog eat dog world, imagine the supermarkets when snow is predicted - except it is a snowstorm for three weeks long. Chaos. And this is the point where human kind lose their morals. Morals are only really needed in a civilised society, and society will be far from civilized. Like with the film, people went crazy doing things you never usually would - drugs, orgys, giving kids alcohol - just because you now can. 

If a person considers all the things they want to do before they die, their bucket list - ideally these are things that in a situation where you are given a period of time until your untimely death, that you could complete. However, in a situation where EVERYBODY is dying - your list will become irrelevant. Perhaps too, even the point in living - why carry on when you can't even achieve any of those lifelong dreams. There would be no laws in this time-bomb world, the biggest crimes such as murder would barely matter, as soon -you will all be dead. 


Little bit of positivity in the evening, but these are the dark thoughts provoked by a comedy...

Making pre-apocalyptic dreams come true?