A movie’s budget should not be more than an inconsequential footnote in any review, but Evan Almighty practically begs a discussion of its own. The sequel of sorts to 2003’s successful Bruce Almighty is adorned with the dubious honour of being the most expensive comedy ever produced. Sitting through its bewilderingly unfunny 95 minutes, one struggles to fathom where exactly those $175 million went. Said struggle leads to no logical answers and Evan Almighty will now carry the title for the most absurdly spent $175 million far beyond Hollywood, which is prone to bouts of such inexplicable folly.
The studio behind the movie unashamedly courts the Christian audiences which made The Passion of the Christ a smash hit and takes no prisoners with its strategy as to how to bring hordes of God-fearing families to the theatres. The gambit is crossing the story of Noah’s Ark with toilet humour, numbing computer-generated shots and spraying the mixture with a non-committal environmentalist message. The result is a catastrophe of biblical proportions.
Bruce Almighty, the 2003 comedy starring Jim Carrey, had a healthy number of genuine laughs with its setup of a failing TV reported who was given a chance to prove that he could do a better job than God. Showing remarkablly good judgment, Carrey passed on the opportunity to reprise his role of Bruce, so high-flying Steve Carell (40 Year Old Virgin) was elevated to the rank of star for the sequel.
This immediately has the average audience member scratching his/her head in wonder. Are we supposed to like the man? He was a delightfully obnoxious TV anchor in the original film, but now is shown as guy genuinely caring about his wife and three kids and eliciting our sympathies as a pawn in the time-honoured plot ploy of a man with an impossible choice of being good to his family or being good at work. Further complicating Evan’s positions on our “good-bad” radar is the fact that he is now a newly elected congressman promising to change the world, which makes him either a shameless opportunist or a plain fool.
God, however, takes his pledge rather too seriously and has him build an ark to save all things living. God clearly does not take “no” for an answer – Evan grows a long white beard he cannot shave, his suits and ties give way to an old robe he cannot shed, he develops a following of pairs of animals, which he cannot shake off. The congressman-turned-prophet-of-doom becomes the laughing stock of Washington, DC, but sadly cannot make the audience move a facial muscle in anger. The criminal lack of inspired and funny scenes is sadly augmented by the mere presence of Carrell in the lead role. Don’t get me wrong, Carell is a fine comedian and his performance stands apart from the dullness of the movie, but with his understated style he is great at finding the comedy in the mundane, whereas this material begs to be redeemed by the exuberant and reckless approach of, say, a Jim Carrey or a Robin Williams.
As it is, the movie relies on the animals, real or computer generated, to provide the laughs. At the bidding of director Tom Shadyac, they oblige with an assortment of fart gags, which would probably entertain a kid exposed for the first time to the phenomenon. No doubt, a lot of money was spent on staging these, on the actual ark and the flood, but the wisdom of doing that is always in question.
The film nominally champions environmental awareness and Christian virtues, yet it spends an average of $20 million on a moderately good laugh? Oh the irony.
