Review of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) by Tibor B — 31 May 2013

A surprising film, obviously trying to be a kind of "Eternal Sunshine" of the apocalypse. The presence of Carell suggests a comedy, but despite a few amusing moments it's actually played fairly straight.

The end of the world atmosphere is quite unnerving, and the details of a known apocalypse event are well conceived, from the general laissez fare attitude to the small details such as increased contract killer demand and human change of heart emotions leading people to leave bad relationships and contact old flames.

It's certainly a tragicomedy, rather than a comedy with a tragedy in the background. Despite the details, the script falls back to lazy road movie as relationship-maker cliches and Carell and Knightley are a strange pairing, the romance sort of works but isn't particularly passionate, which is what the script seems to want.

It does have quite a light tone, but is hardly feel-good, so it's bound to confuse people - I can't imagine it being a good date movie but it may be a quiet reaffirmation of human connection for a couple.

I quite enjoyed its contradictory, slightly confusing vibe but it probably did need to be pushed one way or the other, ie. comedy or tragedy, to really work well.