SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World was another great movie.  I saw it last night.  Keira Knightly and Steve Carrell were masterful.  I missed the first 30 to 45 minutes of this movie, the radio announcement that a space shuttle commissioned to destroy an asteroid on course with the Earth had failed.  Just tuned in late.  That explains the title, the meaningless exchanges, and all the drugs.  Or, better yet, it is done as a background reference to our current culture.  The 60s, my friends, have never left us.  Here is the beginning according to Wikipedia:

The film opens with a radio announcement that a space shuttle mission to destroy an asteroid on a collision course with Earth has failed. The world has three weeks until impact, at which time humanity will be wiped out. Dodge Petersen (Steve Carell) and his wife Linda (Nancy Carell) listen to the broadcast from the side of the road. After Dodge has a uninterested response, Linda looks at him in abject disgust and flees the vehicle without saying a word.

Dodge returns to his near-empty New York City workplace the next day, where he sells insurance. While everyone around him has reacted differently—from suicide to constant drugs to guilt-free sex—Dodge's life has not changed at all. He does not stop going into his meaningless job until one of his friends leaps to his death.

After attending a friend's wild party, where he passes on sex and drugs, Dodge returns home to reminisce about his high school sweetheart, Olivia, when he notices his neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) crying on the fire escape. She admits that she has just broken up with her boyfriend Owen (Adam Brody) for making her miss her last opportunity to see her family in England. At her apartment, Penny gives Dodge three years' worth of his mail that was incorrectly delivered to her and in the process unwittingly tells him that his wife was having an affair.

I liked the way the relationship between Penny and Owen developed.  You might too.  I liked this movie.

CUSTODY OF THE HEART

Custody of the Heart, 2000, is one of the best movies on divorce that I've ever seen.  It shows the heartbreak and the courage facing personal struggles while waiting for some kind of good or positive to show up but inevitably can't even though the other person loves you and does not want to lose you.  Sometimes chasing goals and repairing broken dreams in our lives has to be done without the presence of those who love us or support us or who want to help us.  And though I've seen him elsewhere, this is perhaps the best role and performance by Martin Donovan that I've seen.  Lorraine Brasco's character receives an award at the end of the film where she thanks her family for her success, and this scene was all the more poignant for showing how divorce can torture love between two people or between a husband and a wife.  To her credit, she did not trash him or throw him under the bus with her audience, one that would have easily sided with her and demonized the husband for being a source of her anguish.  The movie was very good.  Here is a decent summary.