Movie Review
Evan Almighty Directed by Tom Shadyac
When Morgan Freeman
prevails upon me to,
say, part the border fence and let the illegal immigrants go, I hope that
assignment proves more compelling than watching Steve Carell build an ark in
Evan Almighty. This wimpy family comedy tries, half-heartedly, to fuse the
planet’s ecological woes with much of the country’s religious convictions, while
taking broad swipes at legislative malfeasance in the Capitol. If that
combination sounds remotely enticing, wait for the South Park episode that would
do it justice.
Steve Carrell (right) is summoned to build an ark in Evan Almighty.
In the meantime, this is a harmless excuse to watch cute critters (from
farm, forest, and jungle) harass Carell as he reprises an expanded version of a
minor but funny role he played in Bruce Almighty, that Jim Carrey smash from
2003. In those four years, the American film comedy landscape has changed
significantly. Carrey, who even then seemed desperate for darker movies, has all
but renounced gangbusters slapstick, and Carell, while being a very different
sort of actor (his m.o. is internal combustion), now seems the brighter star.
Only in the last 30 minutes does Evan Almighty put his gifts to decent
use. Epically hairy and biblically robed, Carell suggests at that point what a
bolder, more psychologically serious treatment of religious conviction would
have been like. Until then he seems like Paul Lynde freaking out in a
high-concept kiddie comedy from the 1970s.
When his character, Evan Baxter, is elected to Congress, he quits his news
anchor job and moves his wife (Lauren Graham, languishing in a
long-suffering-wife role) and their three sons from Buffalo into an exurban
Virginia McMansion overlooking an expanse of barren lots. On the eve of his
first day in office, he prays for help in changing the world. Changing Tom
Shadyac’s mercilessly broad direction would have been more useful. Most of the
gags are underscored by grubby close-ups. One shot pulls in tight for a movie
theater whose marquee reads The 40-Year-Old Virgin Mary (har har). The
filmmaking is the equivalent of large type.
After seeing the numbers 6:14 wherever he goes (a nod to that fateful
passage in Genesis), Evan receives a visit from God, who’s still played by the
supremely mellow Freeman. For days, He’s been having lumber and tools dropped
off outside Evan’s house. Animals have been following him in twos to his roomy
office (birds of all feathers flock over him like storm clouds that rain poop)
and, as an interesting companion development to Carell’s chest-waxing sequence
in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Evan’s hair refuses to stop growing. Indeed, God
wants this man to be his Noah and build an ark in preparation for a Great Flood.
But Freeman’s is not a wrathful Lord. Frankly, his unflappable incarnation
wouldn’t be out of place in a Cheech and Chong movie. Most of the story’s energy
is spent building to Evan’s showdown with John Goodman, as a crooked senior
congressman who wants Evan to co-sponsor a shady land-use bill. No one’s party
affiliation ever comes up, but apparently God wants more church in His state.
Shockingly, this flood is less an allergic reaction to any global catastrophe
and more the result of what happens when a studio has too much cash to blow on a
wild effects sequence.
Actually, at a rumored $175 million, the movie tops Waterworld as the most
expensive aquatic comedy ever made. The resulting merits of such an achievement
are debatable. (Is a big budget like a musical score: best undetected?)
Hopefully a lot of that money went to Wanda Sykes, who plays one of Evan’s
staffers. It’s a huge relief to see that in a movie full of critters, Sykes, for
once, is playing a human. She wins most of the movie’s laughs tossing barbs at
anyone she can. When Carell comes to work with a beard and mane, one of her
Teflon putdowns is, "You look like a Bee Gee."
She’s the riskiest, sharpest thing in a movie that strives to be all
things to all people. That might work for God and certain politicians, but it’s
a monotonous approach to comedy. — Neilsen Entertainment News Wire
Send story
Print story
