Evan Almighty

I find within film criticism there are two camps of people, those who like easily, and those who hate easily. Those that like (and I would include myself in this category) look for the good in films, try to see past any initial faults and generally go into a film wanting to like it, wanting to be impressed. Those who easily hate on the other hand go into films wanted to dislike them, they easily pick up on the bad and can be very hard to please. Those people will not like this film. At all. Yet for me it is hard to hate this, like all of Tom Shadyac’s films (Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams) it wears its heart on it’s sleeve, it can be really overly cheesy and sappy and relies heavily on family friendly broad slapstick, but it has a good moral message and so to hate it seems like kicking a puppy – unnecessarily mean and with no real purpose.

A sort of sequel to Bruce Almighty, Evan sees former anchorman Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) moving to Washington with his family having recently been elected as a local Congressman. To be fair the film tries to tie this story in to the original film but Carell’s character bears little resemblance to the rather mean reporter he played before, it is clear with his newly found fame the makers chose to elaborate on the original rather than develop an entirely new character which may have worked better, but the discrepancy is minor and doesn’t significantly affect the film.

As in Bruce Almighty Even may be a success at work but he has bigger problems with his family that he if unaware of, until God appears to him and charges him with making an Ark in the neighbouring housing lots, and saving himself in the process. At first Evan protests but as eventually becomes convinced as he becomes the laughing stock of the neighbourhood and his antics begin to threaten his home life as well. These early sections of the film are fairly amusing, as Carrel’s quest for a quiet life come a cropper as tonnes of wood is dumped on his lawn and pairs of animals begin to follow him around In fact the whole film could be summed up thusly, fairly amusing. It was watchable and Carrels natural charm lends a lot of likeability to the character, especially when people turn against him, the message about perseverance and trusting in God is well handled without being overly preachy. What’s a shame is that virtually no-one else is developed at all, Carell’s family are bland and left with little material other than for minor family drama, Morgan Freeman sleepwalks through his role as God once again, but still outperforms most people and Evan’s work colleagues tend to annoy more than entertain (Wanda Sykes take a bow) whilst John Goodman hams it up as an evil senator.

Still the film boasts some impressive special effects at the end and a timely, if overly simplified message about the environment and religion and some good jokes as well that seem broadly placed to as wider audience as possible (though the mere thought of the combination of cute animals + children + religion has probably already put those of a certain disposition into some kind of hate fuelled coma.) I guess that’s one of the problems with the film, how safe it plays it, everything in the film is black or white, problems get solved, people are made ok again and everything works out for the best. It is a very simplified version of reality that will no doubt infuriate some, and yet it is done with genuine feeling, something rare in mainstream movies these days, which somehow makes it work, there’s nothing shameless about a positive message if you mean it, and you get the feeling that Shadyac really does, whether you agree with him or not.

And yet with all these reasons not the like the film, I kind of did. This is the kind of film I can imagine watching in the future with my family and children, and so to hate on it for the kind of film it is seems rather moot. As much as there is a place for serious emotional drama, and violent horror there is a place for films with a message, films that put a smile on your face and make you feel good about humanity for a while. Evan Almighty is not a masterpiece; neither is it a particularly great film in itself, but it has enough winning charm and sincerity to work despite this.

Predictable and obviously targeted as wide as possible Evan should have been a disaster but through Carell’s charms and a solid message (and some impressive effects) this manages to just stay the right side of overblown sappiness and provide an entertaining enough feel good film that will definitely not be to everyone’s tastes.