Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

I thought I would start this whole thing off with a "review" of my favorite movie. I put review in quotes so you can keep in mind that this is completely biased and not based on any formal education about movies, with the exception of one elective film class for a semester in high school. So no, I'm not going to drop any crazy revelations on your brains or probably even use correct movie terms. What you are about to get (assuming the lack of formal knowledge doesn't completely disinterest you) is the opinion of someone who has immersed herself in every type of movie for the past 20 years. Now, given that you're still with me, let's get into it.

From the same woman who directed Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World came out in the summer of 2012. As of right now it has a rating of 55% from Rotten Tomatoes, a 59% from Metacritic, and a 114% from this blog. I was only able to lay my unworthy eyes on this masterpiece of a movie when it began it's brief running on HBO. A lonely insurance salesman spends every day leading up to the impeding apocalypse unremarkably until he gets stuck with a dog he names Sorry, and escapes the city with a heedless English woman. This movie hit so many nails of their collective heads for me.

1. Dark Comedy
   The audience is told in the first minute of the movie that the last hope to stop this asteroid that will doom all life on Earth has failed; everyone has three weeks to live. Before Keira Knightly is introduced into the plot, you're following around a lonely Steve Carell through his usual work week at an insurance firm while everyone else is losing their collective goddamn minds. There are ads to "Hire an Assassin" to kill you before the asteroid does, to "Fuck a Virgin", and posters showing the best of humanity which include Jesus and Oprah. There are no real punchlines so to speak in this movie, it's more of a series of pathetically ironic situations that are either going to make you cringe or laugh and it is completely subjective to everyones sense of humor. 
2. Character Juxtaposition
   Many of the disappointing reviews I've read about Seeking a Friend is that Knightley and Carell have no chemistry. This is purely a preference judgement, and I loved that they didn't fit together. I thought it was more realistic that way. By chance they meet, escape the city, and spend their last days together and the power of inevitability fuels their relationship. If this was another Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence movie it would ruin it and I will stand by that statement until I die.
3. Resolution
   Spoilers to come. Hands down the best part of this movie is the ending. Steve Carell and Keira Knightley realize they belong together and, after a series of tearful events, end up lying in bed together, talking about their lives, listening to asteroids hit the earth. The final shot is of Keira Knightley from Steve Carell's point of view and a bright light fills up the room behind her, lights up the whole shot and obscures her face and the movie ends. The last 30 minutes of Seeking a Friend transforms from a darkly funny end of the world movie to a heartbreaking love story with impeccable ease. You will be laughing up until the moment you're crying. I've watched this movie more times than I've seen any other movie and every time, when Steve Carell tells Keira Knightley that he is madly in love with her and that she is his "favorite, favorite thing" I get choked up. Knightley tells Carell "I thought that somehow we'd save each other" and Carell replies "We did. I'm really glad I got to know you" and then the movie just ends. Done-zo. Everyone dies. No one is happy. Everything is sad. And I wouldn't end it any other way. I just curl up into a sobbing ball of satisfaction every time I watch that ending. Obviously, everyone has to die. It would be such a cop-out if somehow, after realizing they loved each other, the asteroid was stopped and they were allowed to live a long and happy life together; that would obviously be an outrageous ending. This ending is so fitting after everything they've been through; after all, their whole existence of knowing each other is in the state in impending doom. You can't even imagine a world were they would be together without being able to quantify their fate in hours. So yes, the overall movie is sad, but sometimes sad is the most logical, and in this case, a sad ending still makes for a pretty happy ending too.

Nothing makes me more happy than this movie and I always try to get as many people as I can to watch it so that everyone can appreciate the sheer greatness of it.