This was a good movie; too bad hardly anyone went to see it in theaters. The plot is grim but the first three-quarters of the film is filled with humor.
The film opens up with a man listening to the radio broadcast in his car, saying that a massive asteroid is headed toward the Earth to destroy it. Upon hearing the news, his wife runs out of the car and never looks back. The man is Dodge (Steve Carell), an insurance salesman, who doesn't let this news stop him from living his life. He still goes to the gym and goes to his job, one of the few people who do. He lets a spider in his sink life. It bites the crap out of his face and while parking his car at work, one of his coworkers hurdles himself off the roof and lands on Dodge's car, cracking the windshield. Naturally, he is depressed about the world ending and that his wife left him, but he also feels hopeless and drinks some cough syrup to ease his pain. His friends, including Diane (Connie Britton), Warren (Rob Corddry) and Roache (Patton Oswald) are having fun, throwing crazy parties, drinking and taking illegal drugs. Roache enjoys having sex with as many women as possible, because the women aren't worry about pregnancy, STDs and everything else that they would normally worry about. Diane even tries to have sex with Dodge, who is horrified, Diane would cheat on her husband Warren with him? He leaves, upset that his is alone, thinking of his high school sweetheart.
Upon returning to his little apartment, alone, he finds a woman crying on his fire escape. Her name is Penny (the great Keira Knightley), upset over breaking up with her boyfriend. He invites her in. She says, "I won't steal anything if you don't rape me." Naturally, Dodge agrees to this. She helps herself to some cough syrup and smokes some weed and promptly falls asleep on his couch, sleeping until his harmonica playing finally wakes her up. When she wakes up, Penny takes him down to her apartment where she gives him all of his mail for the past three years that had been wrongly placed in her mailbox. One of these is a letter from Olivia, his old high school sweetheart, telling him that he was the love of her life.
That night, he attempts to commit suicide by drinking a large amount of window cleaning fluid but wakes up only to find a dog with a leash tied to his foot and a note on his shirt saying "Sorry." That becomes the dog's name.
Later, riots break out all over the town, including near the apartment building. Determined not to get killed, Dodge jumps into Penny's apartment where she is having another fight with her ex-boyfriend, Owen (Adam
Brody). They finally find her car and a deal is made. If Penny gets him to his high school sweetheart, he will hook her up with a plane flight home to visit her parents; they do live in England after all. They get into the car, leaving a frustrated Owen in the dust.
However, things do know as planned, as Penny quickly runs out of gas. Then they run into another driver (William Petersen) who can give them a ride. But, as it turns out, this guy was diagnosed with terminal cancer and hired a hit man to help him commit suicide, but just as he is relieved that Dodge and Penny aren't the hired guns, he gets shot in the neck. Dodge and Penny bury the man, but then, staring at the grave, realize that the keys to his truck are still down there.
The journey continues. They stop at a Friendsy's Bar, which is a great scene, considering it includes Community's Gillian Jacobs as a waitress, Kate. Everyone is welcome here, including the dog. The host says that last week, some guy brought a wolf in. There is plenty to drink, dancing the congo. Penny even smells weed and immediately follows the smell to obtain some. Then, they leave because a sex orgy is beginning. But then, back in the car, Penny throws herself on Dodge and the two have sex. Dodge feels guilty, but Penny simply tells him that it was bound to happen. Then, a policeman pulls them over because Penny is speeding, though she seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, because the world is ending. She also tells Dodge to put her last bit of weed in his mouth, which is a bad idea, but the scene is funny nevertheless. The policeman is unimpressed by everything and takes them to jail where they spend the night. Penny is upset over most likely never seeing her family again. They get out the next morning and are dropped off at the house of one of Penny's ex-boyfriends, who is in the army and set for the disaster with titanium walls and plenty of guns and potato chips. Here, Penny is finally able to call her parents and cries upon just hearing there voices. Specht (Derek Luke) is able to lend them a smart car, though he expects Penny back because she deserves a chance at survival and he expresses his regret over not marrying her.
Dodge and Penny journey back to his childhood home, where some more bonding between the two occurs. Then Dodge leaves a letter on Olivia's door, though Penny is shocked that nothing more happened. Then after a quick trip to the beach, where Penny and Dodge kiss for real and spend some quality time together before continuing on their journey. The next stop shocked me. They arrive at Dodge's father's (Martin Sheen) house. This man left Dodge and his mother years ago and the two hadn't spoken in years, but now he is back. Penny hugs the man immediately. The old wounds would never heal, but Dodge now at least has come closer. When Penny falls asleep, Dodge carries her onto his father's plane, England bound. He kisses her goodbye, saying that she is the love of his life.
He returns home with Sorry. The meteor attack is sped up, coming a week earlier than planned. He expects to die alone. Then Penny returns, saying her romantic parents would understand. (Until now, she had been skeptical about the whole thing.) She wanted to die with him. They lie on her bed, talking. Penny is afraid. Then the first sounds occur and some everything fades to white. The world is over.
The film is good, though it does have its faults, mainly Steve Carell is still playing the same character he did in Crazy, Stupid, Love. He also cannot cry on cue. Keira Knightley (always underrated), on the other hand, is great as this role is different from everything else she's ever done, but she gives the best performance of the film. Also, the tone is quite uneven, but it can really make you laugh and cry as the whole idea is quite sad, I was in tears by the end, refusing to believe that the world would actually end. But the film gave the viewer plenty to think about, what would really happen if the world was about to end? This film is very good and certainly the most underrated film of the year that I've seen. Grade: A-
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