Seeking a friend for the end of the world (4½ Stars)

"Seeking a friend" (please forgive me for shortening the title) was recommended to me by a friend as a must-watch film. I'd already read mixed reviews, but this was a friend who's recommended films to me before, so I trust her advice.

The film is a beautiful genre mix. It's an apocalyptic romantic comedy road movie. The premise of the film is simple: if you know that the world will end in three weeks, how will you spend your last days? Civilisation breaks down. Apart from a few idealists, people stop working. Public transport, including air travel, ceases. Mail is no longer delivered. Some people turn to sex and drugs for their last days on Earth. Others kill themselves. There is rioting and looting in the cities.

Dodge (Steve Carrell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) have lived in apartments in the same building in New York for three years, but never spoken to one another. They both have plans. Dodge wants to meet his high school sweetheart again, who he hasn't seen for over 20 years. Penny wants to find someone with a plane to take her to England to see her parents. Since they only have one car between them they decide to help each other. On their way across America they encounter tales of desperation and hope. And they fall in love with one another.

Steve Carrell is an actor that I have somehow "missed". Even though he's been in a lot of films, I've only ever seen him before in "Bruce Almighty". I know Keira Knightley better, but somehow I've never enjoyed her as an actress. She isn't a bad actress, far from it, but there's something missing; I don't feel a thrill when she walks into a scene. That certain something is missing. In this film it's different. Maybe it's the way Steve and Keira bounce off one another. They're a perfect couple.

The film tells a similar story to "Melancholia", but it's more moving. In my review of "Melancholia" I wrote that "it's not really possible to say if the film is good or bad".  I can't say that about "Seeking a friend". This is a first class film that many people would enjoy, if they gave it a try. It failed at the box office, but I think that was because people didn't know what to expect. A science fiction film? A comedy? It doesn't fit tidily into any neat description.