At best, Mankind is only three foodless days away from The Road Warrior.
That doesn’t apply to Los Angeles where chaos is the norm, especially after a Laker championship.
Now imagine the Earth’s destruction was assured, arriving in three weeks.
So long civilized bonds.
Humanity would morph to a place of self-absorbed debauchery similar to an HBO series.
Therefore I salute director/screenwriter Lorene Scafaria for grafting new branches onto the trunk of global catastrophe and romance.
Her original touches mark this tale of two strangers who learn the Earth will be destroyed by an asteroid in less than a month.
Naturally, there are obligatory scenes of unrestrained sexual license torn from the pages of the Secret Service. But there’s also growth, learning, and love as insurance executive Dodge (Steve Carell) and free spirit Penny (Keira Knightly) set out to find Dodge’s old sweetheart in the waning days of the planet.
A standard trope is the uptight character paired with a whimsical soul.
Here Scafaria has a little fun. Instead of Mr. Uptight Insurance Guy learning to relax and let go, Dodge schools Penny on the values of self-discipline, responsibility and perseverance. Gradually, Penny sees her go-with-the-flow lifestyle concealed a crude hedonism glossed over with pop morality.
At several points, Scafaria cuts away to show other reactions to the catastrophe.
In a funny cameo, Stephen Colbert renounces irony for the final three weeks but gives up after forty minutes. In another scene, Lady Gaga discards her latex, meat and PVC pipe garments and embarks on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
The most improbable moment occurs when Philadelphia Eagle fans are cordial to visiting teams and wish them only the best.
In the end, you sense Penny could have amounted to something if she’d only absorbed Dodge’s lessons earlier. But there are consolations. As Dodge reflects, “The end of existence isn’t so bad. We’ve found each other, plus Rosie O’Donnell will never get another TV show.”
One and a half stars for showing the main characters consumed by fire immediately after the atmosphere ignites.
I like the Science Channel, but that’s seriously off-putting.
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