Evan Almighty

PLOT: Newly elected to Congress, Evan Baxter, is the next one anointed by God to accomplish a holy mission. Evan leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life gets turned upside-down when God appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark. But his befuddled family just can't decide whether Evan is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis or is truly onto something of Biblical proportions.
RATED: PG for mild rude humor and some peril.
RUNNING TIME: 89 MINUTES
STARS: Steve Carell (Evan Baker), Morgan Freeman (God), Lauren Graham (Joan), John Goodman (Congressman Long).

Gord Burt 3.5 Stars

Evan Almighty is less a sequel to Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty than a spin-off as screenwriter Steve Oedekerk takes the original movie’s concept and simply does something different with it. Evan does star two actors from that 2003 comedy. Thanks to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office, Steve Carell’s career has taken off, so once Carrey declined to make a sequel, the producers chose to focus on the minor anchorman character Carell played in the first film.

As Evan evolves from uptight, disingenuous congressman to a man heeding God’s word, even he becomes likable. Carell does some physical comedy, but he’s more of a straight man prone to fits of slapstick.

Morgan Freeman returns as a jovial but persistent God, and is perhaps the best screen God ever. Wanda Sykes is the queen of the one-liner, and John Goodman gives a performance that reminds you how funny he can be with good material, even when playing the obvious heavy. Lauren Graham is great as Evan’s disbelieving (at first anyway) wife.

Evan Almighty is a fun movie that doesn’t make you think too hard, but has plenty of little jokes for those who pay attention, and even some cool stuff you might pick up including the fact God, surprisingly, has a sense of humour. In the Bible, Noah was commanded to build the ark of gopher wood. In Evan Almighty, God delivers the lumber via a company named Go-4-Wood and when God appears as a diner waiter, his nametag reads Al Mighty.

Evan Almighty lays the religion on awfully thick as it’s pretty clearly made with Christians in mind. But, while dealing with some matters of faith, the Bible and God, it’s done in a respectful way that doesn’t come off as bible thumping, nor belittling to those whose faith is important to them.

Erin Harde 4 Stars

While Evan Almighty isn’t a film of Biblical proportions, it ably stays afloat, and will please everyone from the Sunday school crowd to cynical fans of The Office. With Steve Carell at the helm, he takes his awkward Michael Scott from The Office to a man awkwardly morphing from a suave, poised politician into a modern-day Noah.

It’s not quite hysterical, but worth a few chuckles. Watching Carell begin to lose it as he spots GEN 6:14 everywhere, refuses to accept anonymous gifts of lumber and tools, and then screams with disbelief as a heavenly Morgan Freemen playfully torments him into obedience, is priceless. Morgan handles the omnipresent, omnipotent role with a smug confidence, adding the perfect calm to Carell’s sea of confusion and doubt.

Slowly but surely, Carell finally accepts his mission from above, dons the robes, commissions his sons, and gets to work on the Ark. At first disgusted by a stray dog, he begins to welcome the hundreds of animals who patiently wait for their dry refuge, not that they need one in this record drought season. The birds are especially entertaining, perching and defecating all over Evan, until he accepts their company, at which point they target a grouchy John Goodman, who plays an evil congressman. Typecast so often as the big, loveable dad or friend, Goodman does well here as the corrupt politician who doesn’t mind cutting corners or destroying parkland for personal profit.

Lauren Graham plays Evan’s wife, who mistakes her husband’s new career path as a carpenter for a mid-life crisis. Who wouldn’t? Fortunately, God plays busboy in a diner and shows her the light.

Without being preachy, and with only one curse in the entire film, Evan Almighty is the ideal family film. It’s not a lesson in Bible studies so much as a call to have faith in someone or something. And with Carell rocking the boat, you can have faith in Evan Almighty.