Starts September 20
Original language: English
Mankind counts down the last 21 days to the day an asteroid will hit and destroy the world.
This isn’t the usual action-packed drama with heroes scrambling for a last-minute way out, “this isn’t Noah’s Ark, it’s the Titanic” - to quote from the movie. Scriptwriter / director Lorene Scafaria imagined what last-minute choices and use of their time people would make when faced with certain catastrophe – and finds humor in it, be it ‘business as usual’, suicide, or anything else. Forty-something Dodge (Steve Carell) and his 28-year old neighbor Penny (Keira Knightly) take the more conventional approaches: he wants to declare his love to his high-school flame; she wants to go home to join her family. To accomplish this they team up for a not so conventional road trip.
In difference to Steve Carell’s “Dodge”, Knightley’s “Penny” is ill conceived and misdirected. Except for the predictably ensuing romance one kept wondering where the director was going with ‘this’ - and finally just wished someone would speed up the countdown.
Direction & Script: Lorene Scafaria
With: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Editing: Monika Willi, Nadine Muse