Movie Review: Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty

The trailers for Bruce Almighty were hilarious. I took a chance that all of the best bits weren't in the trailer, and bought my ticket in anticipation of a laugh-out-loud comedy. The good news is that the trailers don't ruin the movie and that there are some very, very funny scenes. The bad news is that, midway through what could have been a genuinely funny and feel-good movie, the script takes a hard right turn and the story becomes a ham-handed in-your-face attempt to evangelize. To add insult to injury, the evanglism isn't funny, either. It's just...annoying.

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a television reporter in Buffalo, New York. With a real gift for telling human interest stories with both comedy and compassion, Nolan despises what he does and dreams of becoming a serious news anchor. When the anchor spot opens up, he has high hopes. But during the course of a terrible day where everything that can go wrong does go wrong, Carrey loses not only his chance at the anchor spot but his job as well. When he rails at God for ruining his life, God (Morgan Freeman) responds, and tells Bruce that if he thinks he can do a better job, he's welcome to try. As Bruce's powers manifest themselves, he treats his long-suffering girlfriend, Grace (Jennifer Aniston) to a night she'll never forget, and he finally manages to toilet train his stubborn dog. But along the way, despite his gains, Bruce manages to lose much of himself.

Bruce Almighty teaches some very real and very important lessons. Unfortunately, by the time it reaches the three-quarter mark in the story, it begins to take itself far too seriously. There are other movies that have presented a similar message in a positive way. Bruce Almighty, on the other hand, is merely positively pious. The first part of the movie is terrific, and earned three solid stars. The last part of the movie is, however, so holier-than-thou (and hypocritically so - Grace, who lives with a man outside of marriage, is presented as someone who lives and breathes prayer and hopes for "finding God" for Bruce) and so entirely unfunny, that it barely earns a single star. To add insult to injury, it's also utterly predictable. My best recommendation to movie-goers is that, if you must see this movie, you should walk out on Bruce at the same time Grace does.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Bruce Almighty is rated PG-13 for language, sexual content (none of it explicit and some of it hysterically funny), and crude humor (like the average 12 year-old will be offended by crudity...). This isn't a movie for younger children because, frankly, they won't get the jokes. For those age 12 or so and up, however, it should be fine.