Seeking a Friend for the End of the World 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: When Seeking took hold of me, completely and without warning, I was digging for tissues. It's a lovely surprise for the official start of summer. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Think of it as a greeting-card version of the end of times. Self-consciously winsome. Decorous. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: ...Scafaria's skill here is not only in getting a wide pool of talented people to be in the film, but also in actually giving them something to do. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It seems downright unfair that billions of people have to die so that a middle-aged sad sack can cop a cuddle with a cute, younger bohemian neighbor. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: After so many hellish apocalypse movies, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is intelligent, dignified and emotionally satisfying. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: There's real wisdom and honesty to the way this improvised friendship plays out, as both characters struggle to leave this mortal coil with some perspective and dignity. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: I liked "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," the notes it hit, the questions it asked. And if Scafaria is guilty of playing on emotions, at least she's good at it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" struggles to find its voice. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Lorene Scafaria, making her feature debut as writer-director, scores numerous laughs off the social dislocation that follows as people realize the apocalypse is imminent. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: What it doesn't have is a way of making sense of its comic and dramatic strains, together, in the same movie. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: This is an exceedingly promising directorial debut for Scafaria, who adapted the winning romance Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Scafaria has to work beneath the inevitable looming gloom or else chicken out, and that's a question that ultimately distracts from the characters' dramatic development. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: In our summertime-movie world of aliens and superheroes who look all too familiar, Dodge and Penny look all the rarer in their precious humanity. Read more

Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter: Scafaria and her two likeable leads have made a witty, warm-hearted and impressively original addition to the rom-com ranks. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Buoyed by individual moments, and by some of the inspired casting that's revealed at each stop along the way. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Scafaria, who made such a splash with her cheeky screenplay adaptation of "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" in 2008, is simply over her head here. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: As Seeking a Friend for the End of the World crawls toward its sentimental finale, you're rooting for that asteroid to get here, quick. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It's too bad the movie chose to go so gentle into that good night. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A movie that may be, in its own small, weird way, the most bizarrely bittersweet and oddly beautiful romance you've seen in quite awhile. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: Like the romance it portrays, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is brief, sweet, funny and sad. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: One of the year's most emotionally affecting movies. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World'' has its laughs, but pretty much every single one of them is in the trailer. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World offers the beats of a series of bad news / worse news jokes. This is not necessarily a good thing. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Seeking a Friend plays to the strengths of both leads, allowing Carell to be the controlled introvert and Knightley to portray the bubbly extrovert. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Steve Carell and Keira Knightley make for one of the most unlikely and yet one of the most touching romantic couples of the year. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It amounts to sort of a romanic comedy, although it makes no promises of providing a happy ending. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Carell and Knightley give it their bittersweet best. But I never rooted for them as a couple. And in a romance, even one with tragic notes, that really is the end of the world. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," a half-tender portrait of two very lonely hearts in the closing weeks of humanity's run on Earth, is a strange movie. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" has plenty of tonal problems -- given the concept, how could it not? -- but Carell's introspective, dryly funny performance is a consistent delight. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The problem with this nice-try comedy is the nice-guy protagonist. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic: The genuine sweetness of the friendship that develops between these two wins out over any of the movie's failings. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Scafaria seems to get disoriented by her own scenario, boxing herself into an apocalypse whose initial absurdities feel so wonderfully right, but where to go from there? Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: While there are some amusing moments involving the film's stellar cast of second bananas, the "quirky" and utterly artificial love story at its center makes Armageddon feel like the preferable option. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Though it's clear we're meant to be moved by the big finale, the sight of these two together is so unsettling it's hard not to start rooting for the asteroid. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The casting is spectacularly wrong, and even on its own scant merits, writer-director Lorene Scafaria's screenplay has little insight into apocalyptic licentiousness, barring a tart line or two. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Bittersweet moments that remind us of the importance of family, questions of faith, the nature of forgiveness and facing mortality are handled deftly but the swings in mood are unsettling. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This is a romantic comedy for people who don't like rom-coms. There's no chance of a happy ending, but its tender mercies speak volumes. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: The end of the world can't come fast enough in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a disastrously dull take on the disaster-movie formula. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: By turns bizarrely affectless and then prattlingly manic, much like its dual protagonists... Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Unsure whether it wants to be a quirky, sad-eyed indie pixie or a brassy, raunchy broad, it veers uneasily between the two, never quite settling into a comfortable or recognizable groove. Read more