Salocin

Bruce Almighty

Bruce Almighty is the latest vehicle for Jim Carrey. Much like The Truman Show, this novel comedy manages to pack an elegant comment on life. In this case, the nature of what makes us happy.

Bruce Nolan is a TV reporter. Because of his instinctive hilarity, he is constantly assigned the kooky and weird stuff to report on, and it frustrates him not to be taken seriously. Over a period of time, he experiences more bad luck than is common, and he soon sees every little problem that befalls him as a sign that God either hates him, or is asleep on the job. Unable to blame any person for his bad luck, he turns on God, and screams to the heavens in frustration - several times.

So God, played by a white-clad Morgan Freeman, decides to give him a chance to set things right. Endowed with God's power, Bruce is asked to run the world, and in the process learn his lesson. Interactions with his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) take on an interesting new twist, and he sets about righting the wrongs he feels have befallen him, before realizing that divine powers aren't exactly making him happy, and perhaps he misdiagnosedd his problem in the first place.

This is Jim Carrey trying to draw a balance between his fantastic ability to perform physical comedy, and a desire to imbue the role and the movie with more than just laughs. He succeeds quite well in all but a couple of instances, and provides his fair share of laughs while managing to keep the ending emotional and significant, rather than just resorting to a final joke. Much of the credit must go to the scriptwriters, who managed to tie a good idea to some fine, tight sequences.

Although much of the world dislikes Jim Carrey, this is more due to an overassociation with roles in movies such as Dumb and Dumber or The Cable Guy, where he deliberately overplays an inherently dysfunctional character. His ability to generate more profound emotions is often overlooked, but has been demonstrated in several of his movies. We caught the first glimpse of it in a few scenes in The Mask and it was clearly much more developed by the time he got around to Liar Liar, The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty.

A good movie, fun to watch, well acted and well made.