Bruce Almighty Review
by Jon Ridge (the_abyss AT attbi DOT com)June 18th, 2003
Number 3, now that I've seen The Hulk, on my
best of the year list (so far, anyway):
The funniest Jim Carrey movie to date, bar none, and one of the cleverest films of
the year has Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a t.v. news reporter with bum luck. He's
desperate to make anchor but can't, not with pieces on "the biggest cookie in
Buffalo". Traffic sucks at the worst possible moments ("Not during sweeps week!"),
and the dog won't stop urinating indoors. Bruce blames God, so God (Morgan Freeman)
endows him and challenges him to do a better job.
Hardly an original hook, but Carrey is having a blast. I usually need a Xanax watching his hyper-caffeinated brand of facial and body humor; he tones it down
just a smidge, here, and the fun's infectious. Not that it matters what is improvised
and what isn't, I appreciated what seemed to be: Carrey making a trumpet with his hands
and keeping his middle finger up ("I could hold that note all day"); where he loses it
on a live feed and brings up a damn good point about the end of TITANIC; and the
"Wait, that's not rain!" line. The film is perfectly modulated, balancing comedy
and only the occasional melodramatic moment. The script, by Steve Oedekerk, is a study in plot construction for getting an entertaining story across. Some of
the sentimental stuff doesn't work, nor does the love story -- Jennifer Aniston doesn't
have a shred of chemistry with her co-star -- although the sight gag-a-second bedroom scene
where he ropes the moon closer and gives her electricity shorting multiple orgasms
is a riot. And, for a pure, unadulterated make you double over with pain from laughing
fit, Bruce manipulating his rival during a live broadcast had me in tears even more so
I'd say than Finch's bathroom episode in the original AMERICAN PIE.
This from the same team behind ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE (the first one)? Wow...
home run.
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