Evan Almighty (2007)

A Movie With Profound Messages
The degree to which you get something from this movie is a reflection of your own depth and spiritual acuity. If go to this movie for "funny", you will get "funny" as Wanda Sykes does a great job of making us laugh. But if you are a seeking and a listener, you will hear some profound messages intersperse in the dialog of Morgan Freedman speaking as God as he speaks to Evan and his wife. I actually saw this movie 3 times in the theaters. I would nearly go into tears when I would hear a dialog like that which transpired in the restaurant with God as Morgan Freedman and the wife. She asks Morgan Freedman after having left Evan for his erratic behavior what he thinks about the idea of her husband acting like Noah. Morgan Freedman replies, "It sounds like an opportunity to me. Do you really think that if you pray for courage that God just zaps you and gives you courage? When you pray for courage, God gives you an opportunity to act courageously. When you pray for more love, God gives you an opportunity to act lovingly." I can't wait for this great movie to come out on DVD to own it and watch it until the grooves run out. This is a deep movie-ONLY if YOU are deep. Highly recommended.


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Evan's Ark
It's hard enough being a rookie congressman with a campaign promise to change the world, but when God himself shows up before you even settle in and commands you to build a really big boat in the middle of a Virginia housing development; well that takes it to a whole new level.

Like George Burns before him, Morgan Freeman has a hard time convincing his chosen one to do as he's told, and it takes a boat load of divine intervention to make Congressman Baxter (Steve Carrell) trade in his power suits for sackcloth and get started measuring cubits.

Amidst the ensuing shenanigans and slapstick, I'm pretty sure he may have been humming the tune of "Fixing a Hole" by the Beatles, and muttering something like:

I'm building an ark ere the rain gets in
Can't keep my mind from wondering
Where it will go
I'm hauling the planks that make up the floor
To keep my mind from wondering
Where it will go

And when finally the work was over, he may have been saying to himself:

I'm filling my ark in the biblical way
And when the sky is thundering
There will I go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
They laugh at me and always ask me
When the rain will start to pour

Kids will probably like this movie, and if you're an adult who can appreciate the miracle of CGI you may like it too. Funny in places, overdone in others, but with a message for taking the time for a number of things that weren't important yesterday.


Amanda Richards, August 3, 2007

3 1/2 Stars to this overall appealing family friendly flick.
Steve Carell has the uncanny ability to convey comedy with the slightest eyebrow raised, blink of an eye, and other simple body and facial language movement. For me, he's one of the great comedians around right now. I don't think with Amazon's dead on snyopsis of the film that I need to go into plot here. I found myself gently nodding to all Amazon wrote about this film.

It's generally funny, but some jokes are strained and/or contrived. The acting is wonderful by all involved. The script is fairly pedestrian and predictable, but the director moves things along at a nice pace. The effects are good, but as Amazon noted, the huge flood sequence would have killed hundreds if not thousands, but everyone laughs it off for the message of protecting the environment. That somehow seems a bit warped in my view.

This film got rotten reviews by mainstream critics, but I found that it all went down rather easily. I'm not one for "message films" as I really don't like being preached to by Hollywood which is the capital of hyprocracy (next to Washington, D.C.), but I always like films in which people attempt to be better people, heed a call from God, or promote being kind to one another. In addition, I nearly always like or have something good to say about a family friendly film such as this.

I expected this film to be rather awful letdown and delayed seeing it, but it was much more enjoyable than I expected. I could even stand to see it again, if just for Carell's brilliant comic timing. Okay, I think Lauren Graham is awesome too.