Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (DQ)

Stars: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Adam Brody, Melanie Lynskey, Rob Corddry, Patton Oswalt, William Petersen, Derek Luke, Martin Sheen

Director: Lorene Scafaria

We're back in Melancholia territory as a massive asteroid heads for Earth and we're all doomed to die in a few weeks' time. This starts off like a comedy, with people doing daft things on TV. We anticipate some good fun here, but all too soon the film goes philosophical (and, well, melancholic) on us, as Carell watches his wife (played, in a joke cameo, by his real-life wife, Nancy) flee their car and leave him to roam the country, through riots and orgies, in search of his high-school sweetheart, picking up English chick Knightley on the way.

Much of what remains is pretty draggy, so thank goodness for Carell, so much more than just a comedian, and Knightley too, in an attractively naturalistic performance, who just about help us to see the thing through to some quite touching scenes at the end.

Petersen, considerably stouter than in his CSI days, and an equally plump Sheen do brief and fairly ineffectual bits as the film rolls rather uninterestingly on its way.

David Quinlan

USA 2011. UK Distributor: StudioCanal. Technicolor.
98 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 1, Swearing 1.

Review date: 09 Jul 2012