OPENED JUNE 27, CERT 12A, 101 MINS
Some people say Christian fundamentalists have hijacked American politics. But it’s worse than that. The Stateside success of Bruce Almighty is the mark of a culture gone completely, medievally God-mental.
Bruce (Jim Carrey) is a TV reporter who has such a bad day he curses God. God (Morgan Freeman) manifests, challenges him to do better and gives him the job for a week. In a series of over-played physical skits, Bruce uses his divine powers to part soup, blow wind up ladies’ skirts, answer the prayers of everyone in town and make a rival newsreader’s voice go all squeaky. Yep, he can do anything?except make his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) forgive his unfaithful ways. What to do? (Hint: it involves praying.)
In a more enlightened era, this could have been a subtle, open-minded look at free will, aspirations, limitations and all that good human stuff. Instead it’s a suffocatingly pious exercise in blinkered self-righteousness. There is a natural audience for this film, and the increasing number like it. But it’s not us.