‘Evan Almighty’:
A born-again experience

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

I laughed. The audience around me laughed. For 90 minutes I was entertained and not concerned about the illogical nature of Evan Almighty.
The first third of the film garnered the most laughs, although, in the middle, the laughs started to grow less frequent and, toward the end, the cheesy graphics were a bit hard to handle.
Since this film is said to be the most expensive comedy ever made, at a reported $175 million, I would have expected better visually, but the acting talent of Steve Carell (TV’s The Office and star of The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and the comedic talent of Wanda Sykes saved this film from going down with the flood. Director Tom Shadyac has a lot to work with here, but more money definitely does not always translate to a better movie.
In the pseudo-sequel to the 2003 hit Bruce Almighty, supporting character Evan Baxter (Carell) gets a major promotion. In Bruce Almighty, which starred Jim Carrey (as Bruce) and Jennifer Anniston, Carell played a TV news anchor in Buffalo, N.Y., who stole the job Carrey’s character had been working so hard to obtain. After complaining how some help from God would have been nice, Bruce receives the almighty one’s powers so he can see for himself how difficult it is to solve everyone’s problems.
This time around there’s no Carrey or Anniston. Carell no longer is a TV anchor; he has just been elected to the U.S. Congress on a platform of changing the world. Congressman Baxter moves his wife Joan (Lauren Graham) and three kids to suburban Virginia. With a brand new Hummer and a large McMansion, the Baxters are living the high life. But it seems someone took Evan Baxter’s promise to change the world a little too literally. Evan starts noticing Gen 6:14 (a Bible verse about Noah building an ark) everywhere, and large pieces of wood begin appearing at his doorstep.
He gets a visit from God (Morgan Freeman, who also played God in Bruce Almighty), who wants Evan to build an ark to save the world from an imminent flood.
In addition to the sort-of religious story here, an environmental message is a big part of the film. One of Evan’s Capitol Hill colleagues, Congressman Long (John Goodman), is trying to pass a bill that would demolish a national park in favor of development and is trying to get Evan to join his cause.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the plot offers much to laugh about, but watching Evan’s transformation from a clean-cut neat freak to a long-haired, robe-wearing ark builder is very funny. His family is not quite on board at first, with the wife wondering if he’s going through some kind of midlife crisis. Evan’s assistant Rita (Sykes) is always good for some amusing one-liners when Evan comes to work looking like a member of the Bee Gees.
Kids may enjoy when the animals start appearing, two by two, of course. There’s some potty humor, along the lines of bird droppings. During the actual building of the ark, Carell tries his hand at some physical humor — falling off stuff and injuring himself with the tools.
As I said, the end of the film does leave a little something to be desired. The so-called flood is really cheesy. The destructive nature of a flood and what happened to people who weren’t on the ark aren’t addressed at all. The movie does make an inspiring point, though — acts of random kindness (as in ARK) can change the world.
Unlike the movie character, Evan Almighty won’t change the world, but it is good for some laughs. It’s not some cinematic essay on the story of Noah; it’s just a fun family film that parents can take their kids to for an enjoyable afternoon at the movies. ••
Movie Grade: B