Some Good Moments, But Uneven

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2003)

"Bruce Almighty" starts out as a comedy, and a very funny one at that. The first half of this movie has many laugh out loud moments, and the news broadcast scene is one of the funniest five minutes of film shot in a long time. I laughed so hard that I cried.
Unfortunately, the movie gets too caught up in delivering its message in the last half. The pacing slows to a crawl, and its stops being funny and starts being preachy. We get speeches instead of laughs. The ending is trite and it hurts the film. The message is, in fact, a clichÃ©. There's nothing new or different about it. It's been done so many times that one wonders why the director and writers feel the need to beat the audience over the head with it.
Jim Carrey isn't nearly as over-the-top as he's been in the past. His acting in this film is more like what he did in "The Truman Show" but with more of his physical humor. Morgan Freeman as God is unconvincing. His acting seems too hollow, and he just doesn't seem to be into the role. There's something missing from his performance. Jennifer Aniston takes up space on the screen; there's not much to be said about her. Any number of actresses could have been cast in the role of Bruce's girlfriend.
If the movie had stuck to comedy and not tried to deliver its message in such a heavy-handed way it would have been a terrific film, and it's worth seeing just for the newsroom scene. However, done the way it is, I give it 6 out of 10. It's above average, but not by much.
FOR ALL THE FUNDAMENTALISTS WORRIED ABOUT THIS FILM MOCKING GOD: It doesn't do that. In fact, it points out what a tough job an anthropomorphic deity has in dealing with the human race, that being God is no fun, and that humans aren't good substitutes for the real thing. It does, however, beat us about the head for a good deal of the time that the idea of "surrendering to God" is a pointless thing to do, and in fact (SPOILER ALERT!), when Bruce does it, he gets run over by a truck. So you probably won't like it. Oh well.