Evan Almighty

A spectacle of staggering banality, Evan Almighty, Tom Shadyac’s follow-up to his 2003 Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty, returns only Morgan Freeman’s wise-cracking, white-wearing black God from the original. Still, one last whirl as the excessively non-offensive deity might have done the most sanctified of African-American actors some good, as he’s practically the only thing worth watching in this otherwise bloated, terminally lackadaisical studio effort. Not that he and the gifted comedian Steve Carell don’t have chemistry, but the script they’ve been given doesn’t have the courage of its convictions. In Shadyac's and veteran comedy auteur Steve Oedekerk’s hands, this modern retelling of the Noah’s ark myth does little to flesh out a series of supposedly comedic scenarios in which the anxiety of a godless post modernity is brought to a head by the prospect of divine intervention. For the good of mankind God will destroy the suburbs and exalt a decent but undeserving man to prophet status? Ok…that this tension, which is an interesting one, is explored in such haphazard fashion is a pity; the scenario is used only as an opportunity to invest in synthetic CGI grandeur and a largely unfunny series of sight gags that play more to a Jim Carrey’s strengths than to those of the more cerebral Carell.

The film centers again on a happily married Buffalonian, this time a TV weatherman (Carell) who wins a congressional seat and moves his wife (Lauren Graham) and three bland children to a D.C. suburb of soul-crushing McMansions, where they are hustled by Molly Shannon in optimal annoyance mode. Evan Baxter soon begins to experience visions of God (Freeman) who makes his life increasingly miserable while trying to convince him a) of God’s existence, b) that he should build an arc, because c) yep, you guessed it, a great flood is coming. Enter John Goodman as a corrupt politician whose investment in the cavernous suburban space Baxter and his neighbors inhabit include cutting corners on reservoir construction costs and bulldozing a hallowed national park. When the dam breaks, on Sept 22nd (just as God told Noah…I mean Evan), the ark comes to good use, and fortunately, although nearly all of metropolitan D.C. is flooded, no one is killed and Evan will surely have more time to spend with his family. I guess…

Although it cost more than the GDP of most Latin-American countries, Evan Almighty makes few attempts to suggest the real-world consequences of Judeo-Christian God’s manifest presence in these sordid times. Think of the societal chaos that would ensue if a first-term congressman grew an oversized beard, built an ark on his property, and returned to the capital claiming that God was bringing the apocalypse, or maybe just a gentle downpour, all to convince us to protect our natural resources. You wouldn’t be the only one laughing, and you’d probably laugh a lot more than you did during the 96 minutes that Evan Almighty may steal from your life.

                                                       Brandon Harris