Reviewed by PETER CALDER
(Herald rating: * * )
Whether the newest Jim Carrey vehicle is a homage to, a parody of, or simply quoting from Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life is hard to discern. That 1946 piece of sentimental whimsy had Jimmy Stewart as a small-town Joe Average whose guardian
angel appears to help him re-evaluate his life, and managed to avoid being sentimental because of its assured sense of itself.
Bruce Almighty, by contrast, is a movie with an identity crisis, a loud pratfall comedy that morphs abruptly into a preachy piece of nonsense, showcasing the role of Hollywood as a nauseating social analgesic.
"Be content with your lot," the film is saying to us, and it does so by showing what happens when Bruce Nolan (Carrey), a second-rate reporter for a Buffalo, New York, television channel shakes his fist at the God he thinks is ruining his life.
Whether this works will depend on how easily you accept that a newsman wanting a provincial anchorman's job is a human being on the metaphysical edge. But then God (Freeman, sturdy and sage, the film's real comic centre) appears and offers Bruce the chance to exercise divine power.
That Bruce uses the chance for entirely selfish and capricious reasons - getting out of traffic jams or exacting revenge from those who have wronged him - is presumably preparing us for the movie's theologically suspect conclusion that we should learn to be less self-absorbed.
But there is some pleasure to be had in watching Carrey - under the direction of the man responsible for his most amusing films, Liar, Liar and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - playing with this material. There are some nice, glancing touches too, such as the water bottle that disgorges wine, and Aniston is a solid, commonsense presence as Bruce's girlfriend.
Despite the premise, it's not really sacrilege - it takes more smarts, like those in Monty Python's Life of Brian to really blaspheme. Rather, it offends by turning the last third into a (perhaps predictably) pompous homily. It's McComedy, really - cheap, filling and bland. Would you like fries with that?
Cast: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston
Director: Tom Shadyac
Running time: 94 mins
Rating: M (contains low-level coarse language)
Screening: Village St Lukes from Thursday, everywhere from June 19.
Reviewed by PETER CALDER
(Herald rating: * * )
Whether the newest Jim Carrey vehicle is a homage to, a parody of, or simply quoting from Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life is hard to discern. That 1946 piece of sentimental whimsy had Jimmy Stewart as a small-town Joe Average whose guardian
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