Evan Almighty film review

certificate_PG

EVAN ALMIGHTY

The only thing almighty about this flimsy effort is the price tag. At an estimated $175 million, it surely ranks amongst the costliest comedies. Had they spent less on effects and more on a funny script, the outcome would certainly have been more successful.

Evan Almighty is the follow up to its significantly more amusing sibling, Bruce Almighty which starred Jim Carrey who showed the rare good sense to decline the opportunity of a sequel. With his absence the baton was passed to Steve Carell who premiered the role of Evan Baxter in Bruce Almighty. With more of a caricature than a character to work with, the role is largely reliant on whatever it is that Carell brings to it. What he brings is the droll schtick he always brings, schtick that is rapidly losing its appeal.

Baxter is a newscaster who has traded his career in television for one in politics, having just been elected as a congressman. His pledge to change the world is heard by God, in the hallowed and white-clad form of Morgan Freeman. Pointing to the once beautiful landscape that had been destroyed by man, He instructs Evan to build an ark. To help him in his task He arranges to have all the wood delivered to Evan's new palatial home he shares with his wife (Lauren Graham) and three boys.

Evan Almighty carries with it a message about the greed of man and the destruction of his environment or, more precisely in this case, God's. But its delivery is far too trite. The metamorphosis of the suited and clean-cut congressman to the bearded and robed prophet is the primary source of the film's humour with Baxter's sardonic-witted assistant Rita (Wanda Sykes) being the secondary. While laughs are at a premium, the more frequent smiles are prompted by throwaway gags like Evan flicking through a copy of Ark Building For Dummies and a cinema screening The 40 Year Old Virgin Mary.

The variety and numbers of animals that Evan attracts everywhere he goes are impressive in their computer generated reality, but come across as more of a technical achievement than an artistic one. To make Evan Almighty anything more than a mild diversion, it requires more Divine intervention than pixelated prowess.

Kevin Murphy