Steve Carell is now a bona fide movie star, but unless Amy Ryan is around, he is no dashing romantic lead. Get Smart paired him with Anne Hathaway, two decades apart, and the otherwise sharp Seeking a Friend for the End of the World makes the same mistake with Keira Knightley, who’s 23 years younger. (In Crazy, Stupid, Love, Julianne Moore was out of his league, but at least she’s his age.) Dodge (Carell) wants to find the love of his life before the world ends. His neighbour Penny (Knightley) wants to get to her family in England. Things take a turn of the violent mob kind, so they hit the road—Dodge knows a guy with a plane, he’ll drop her off. The directorial debut of Lorene Scafaria, who wrote the terrific Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Seeking is a very funny, fresh take on the apocalypse, dotted with well-cast cameos (Connie Britton, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody, Melanie Lynskey) throughout. The romance plays like a studio note and you barely believe it, but the movie wrapped around it is so watchable that you can let it be. This one last time.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2012.