Evan Almighty (2007) Starring Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, John Michael Higgins, Bruce Gray, Dean Norris, Jimmy Bennett, Wanda Sykes, Jonah Hill, Molly Shannon, Graham Phillips, Johnny Simmons, Ed Helms, Rachael Harris, Harve Presnell, Madison Mason, Paul Collins, Jim Doughan, Meagen Fay, Dean Norris, Catherine Bell, Casey Strand, Jesse Burch, David Barrera, Wayne Wilderson, Scott Rollins, Derald Downey, Matt Price, Simon Helberg, Bridget Ann White, Brendan Connor, Donzella Berry.
Directed by Tom Shadyac.
Running time: 96 minutes.
Rating: PG
"We'll get to the questions later. Are you with us?"
Former Buffalo news anchor turned New York congressman Evan Baxter (Carell) longs for more meaningful change than he can get done with mere constituency work and committee hearings. Yet this is a man who won't even drive a fuel-efficient car. With three kids we also see he is not part of Zero Population Growth either. God (Freeman) hears Evan musing his mantra for change aloud and perhaps struck by the hypocrisy, decides to coerce Evan into building an ark with numerous threats.
Evan tries his best to ignore the situation but different species of animals flock toward him in twos beating a path to his door faster than the special interests or just plain wackos that politicians normally attract. In the midst of attaching his name to a controversial bill he has a zoo going on in his office unrelated to statecraft, voting blocs or piecemeal appeasement of the coalition that brought him in to office.
Then God decides for no discernible reason to make Evan look like a cross between John Walker Lindh and Wolfman Jack by impeding his ability to shave. It sabotages his career because of course the only place where a beard indicates political gravitas or acumen is the Middle East.
Take a look at North American or British leaders over the past 50 or even 60 years. See any beards? You probably don't notice many mustaches either. Nixon even got burned for occasionally having minute razor stubble. Early on Evan himself has the modern politician's obsession with grooming right down to trimming his nose hair. You would not believe how many real politicians have a similar obsession. Canada has not had a bearded prime minister since 1896. We have not even had a mustached prime minister since 1920.
Freeman, a Hollywood actor generally identified with wisdom and authority by film audiences is well cast here reprising his role from (2003). They also could have gotten Sam Elliott or Christopher Plummer. In any case each would have been better than some of the very few portrayals of God onscreen we have seen in the past. George Burns, Alanis Morrisette?!
Jim Carrey who played Bruce Almighty four years ago was not included in this film and thus neither was his $25 million asking price. That freed up more money to splurge on CGI and other effects. But one can see that the success of the first one was based on Carrey's star power and rubberfaced persona.
Steve Carell is a different kind of comedian and this type of comedy, sanitised to the point of being a sitcom in early primetime on network rather than cable does not suit him. In fact neither does his sitcom The Office which has underperformed compared with his work on the Daily Show and the original British version of The Office. The bad sitcom jokes and sight gags elicit shrugs and groans within its first half-hour. The situation itself would make little sense to the most braindead of moviegoers.
Tom Shadyac consistently helms the most obscenely stupid, garish cinematic productions in modern Hollywood. His past work includes such scatterbrained rubbish as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Patch Adams as well as Bruce Almighty (2003) which this a sequel to. The fact the films each made money has allowed him to continue working and to keep making films that critics or even just anyone with any taste in movies tend to cringe at. His work here suggests that he knows nothing about politics or Christian faith. Since the film is supposed to be about the marriage of both in modern politics it made for a bomb during the first story meetings. This is potentially quite provocative as subject matter if one understands it on only the most fundamental level. Shadyac doesn't.
A rookie congressman like Evan does not simply move into a massive home in Huntsville, Virginia upon being elected unless he has amassed a huge fortune beforehand (and those people don't usually run for office). That is prime real estate and no matter what people think about politicians salaries they do not go directly from being middle class to upper middle class before they are sworn in as our boy Evan does here. It doesn't matter how corrupt they are either.
The really funny thing here is unintentional. Evan muses during his prayer that he has great power having been elected to congress. His slogan "Let's Change the World" is enough to get political activists everywhere bursting into uncontrollable bouts of giggling. I have heard of politicians overpromising but this is just beyond silly. The House of Representatives and its members have comparatively little power when judged against their Senate colleagues, the President or even just a resourceful lobbyist.
In fact I would trust a good lobbyist to get something done (significant or symbolic) over any elected partisan stooge especially if the stooge happened to be a Democrat. The Lord thy god may work in mysterious ways but politicians work in suspicious and often downright sinister ones. I have seen lobbyists do far more good than so-called "statesmen" and wish I had majored in Criminology instead of Political Science in order to better understand "statesmen".
Evan hits Capitol Hill and immediatley everyone knows his name. His personal assistant refers to him as the "Head Honcho" and "Big Kahuna". In fact like most first term members of the House of Representatives he is nobody until somebody needs his vote for something. When he is asked to co-sponsor a bill he actually reads it. It is indeed cute when people outside the beltway have these misconceptions about what elected officials actually do versus what they pretend to do and then take credit for.
It is no joke what goes on in congress, though outside the beltway it may provide black humour for some. The House of Representatives has a re-election rating of above 90%. It is a tight little exclusive club of dilettante Trotskyite GDP members and their Darwinian (economically anyway) GOP colleagues. The film does not address that. It does address the preponderance of former TV talking heads like Evan, ex-football stars and even former TV sitcom actors ("Gopher" from Love Boat, "Cooter" from Dukes of Hazzard) plugging themselves in to the process and allowing political machines to milk them for gain.
Catherine Bell for the second Almighty movie in a row has a bit part instead of being the leading lady. The leading lady honour falls to Lauren Graham from the Gilmour Girls. Why not Catherine Bell in the lead role? Were producers afraid she would hand out Scientology pamphlets on press junkets?