| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Bruce Almighty (2003) |
| Director | Tom Shadyac |
| Writer | Steve Koren, Mark O’Keefe, Steve Oedekerk |
| Lead Actor | Jim Carrey |
| Cast | Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, Steve Carell |
| Genre | Comedy, Fantasy |
| Release Date | May 23, 2003 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 41m |
| Budget | $81 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.8/10 |
WATCH NOW
BRUCE ALMIGHTY
In what seems like Hollywood’s ongoing effort to revive Lake Erie, Bruce Almighty takes place in Buffalo. (The 2002 independent Manna from Heaven was also filmed in Buffalo, and this year’s View From the Top, with Gwyneth Paltrow, was largely situated in Cleveland.)
“After all,” explains director Tom Shadyac (Liar Liar, Patch Adams, Dragonfly), “Buffalo is a city that gets no respect and neither does Bruce. Buffalo is a city that needs reinvigorating, and so does Bruce Nolan.”
Bruce (Jim Carrey) is a local television reporter who is given all the leftover stories to cover, like the baking of Buffalo’s biggest (10’ 4”) cookie. He’s almost 40, his hopes for a promotion to news anchor are slim, and he seems to live Murphy’s Law. Even when he tries to help a homeless man, he gets beat up by thugs. His sweet, live-in girlfriend of five years, Grace (Jennifer Aniston), hopes for a proposal, but Bruce misses the signs. He’s self-centered and, though he believes in God, his level of faith development is still juvenile. Bruce is angry at God because nothing is going right in his life and he is sure God hates him. He blames God for everything because if God is so all-powerful, why won’t he help?
Just when his life seems to be at its lowest point, his pager goes off over and over again. He calls and a man tells him to come to an address for a job. The man turns out to be God (Morgan Freeman), working as a janitor in a warehouse.
Bruce learns that God knows everything about him in a comedic scene perhaps borrowed from an I Love Lucy episode. They have a conversation about the dignity of work and this leads to God’s decision to endow Bruce with his divine job and his powers. (Morgan Freeman is excellent and plays God just right.)
But Bruce is not allowed to tell anyone he is now “God” and he cannot mess with free will. Bruce learns very quickly that you cannot force people to love you.
From this point on, Bruce is a comedy/ fantasy parable with a little romance. It takes almost the entire film for Bruce to finally grow up, as a human being and a believer.
Naturally, in a Carrey-Shadyac partnership there is some crass adolescent bathroom and body-part humor. But when it comes to the relationship between God and people, the truth that God does care shines forth.
Both director Tom Shadyac and actor Jim Carrey have matured as artists. Shadyac, a practicing Catholic, says that Bruce Almighty is not a catechism, but I disagree. I think that those who can go beyond the surface will see God’s attributes (though Shadyac admits he has to work on the feminine perspective in his work), that the Creator is a personal God who is present and cares about us and who can laugh just as much as we can. Laugh out loud funny, some problem language full of reverence and insight about the nature of the fatherhood of God, who exists for people of all faiths and no faith.
For more movies like BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003) visit Hurawatch.
Also watch: