The apocalypse film genre is one that draws me like a moth to the flame, so I took a rare film pass to see SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, not because I'm a fan of Steve Carell or Kira Knightley. They both did a fine job in the film, but this movie is in some ways akin to a Bresson film, wherein the actors are there more as models to deliver their lines and let the ideas, the atmosphere, do the talking. There are a lot of good actors in SEEKING A FRIEND, but the film is made with such a casual demeanor that everyone gets to downplay their usual serious parts, even though the subject here is pretty serious: an Earth apocalypse by giant meteor. It's enlightening to watch people have to decide what's truly important in their lives and throw everything else away. With 3 weeks to live people turn to doing what is really important to them. I have watched some of Laura Linney's TV show THE BIG C recently and, diagnosed with advanced cancer, she goes about life in an entirely new way, no longer putting up with the bullshit that we often settle for in our assumedly livelong days. Linney's character waits several weeks to tell her family she has cancer, not wanting to fall too quickly into the trap of their sympathy and condolence. Carell and Knightley are drawn together in their final 3 weeks on Earth by a similar mutual detachment that allows them to make the most of the wretched situation and approach death somewhat at peace. While some people fall into the pit of their own worst qualities, these blessed souls find their higher selves at the final hour. It's an encouraging prospect: that apocalypse could be an opportunity for redemption on Earth and entirely unrelated to Christian legends of rapture and ascension. Goodness is its own reward. There is a funny scene at a TGIF-style restaurant named somewhat akin to a Hitchcock film, where the waiters seem to be all on ecstacy and the meal devolves into an orgy that must be escaped. Breaking into old friends' abandoned mansions and feasting from the restaurant grade freezer never tasted so good. There are also faint whiffs of THE OMEGA MAN in depictions of streets wandered by lost souls awaiting the end. The music theme, the High Fidelity-ish love for vinyl-- Kira walks through half of the film holding a short stack of LP favorites-- is amusing in a Music For A Desert Island way, but the retro-romantic Bacharach section was a bit indulgent to me. The sweetness of Things That Will Be Lost if we lose this world is definitely worth stating again and again and is a great function for film: to remind mankind not to crap his own nest, but Bacharach pushes the kitsch button in this instance. Otherwise I do laud writer-director Lorene Scafaria for her accomplishment; it's well written and shot, and I'll seek out her NICK AND NORA'S INFINITE PLAYLIST (writer) to see what else she's made of.
