Bruce Almighty
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Starring Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall and Catherine Bell
Rated PG-13 for language, sexual content and some crude humor.

Uh oh. No, I'm not going to be the one to say it. You do it. Well someone has to do it. Fine, it'll be me, but you have to promise not to get mad. Promise? Ok, here goes. Jim Carrey is getting old.

There. I said it. Now we've got to deal with it.

So after making the best movie other than Rushmore or Married to the Mob to ever play on Comedy Central (Forman's Man on the Moon) Carrey spent 2000 misguidedly attempting to recover his comedic crown (his forgettable double header of The Grinch and Me, Myself and Irene) and 2001 sucking in Darabount's hauntingly unwatchable Capra pastiche, The Majestic. You had to admit it. Things were looking bleak for the man who defined the spirit of nineties' comedy and kept alive the notion that maybe you don't have to dress up as a fat old women at some point during your career in order to be a great comedian. But then you heard the news that Carrey was working on a project with Tom Shadyac, director of Ace Ventura and Liar, Liar (and Patch Adams and Dragonfly, but you were trying to be optimistic). Interesting. If anyone could rechannel the old Carrey Spirit, it would have to be the guy who brought it out in the first place, right?

And you saw the trailers. Some funny exchanges between Carrey and the normally oh so solemn Morgan Freeman. Seemed promising. A dog sat on
toilet. Not your thing maybe, but definitely original. And then Jennifer Aniston started touching her breasts in a scene that was both funny and included Jennifer Aniston touching her breasts (apparently you’re into that sort of thing). It seemed like you had a winner on your hands. Maybe Carrey wasn’t dead and you didn’t have to feel ancient for having been alive at a time when it was socially acceptable to find Fire Marshal Bill funny.

But, as it turns out, you were wrong. Jim’s getting old and so are you. And I guess that makes sense if we go along with the generally accepted scientific notion of time and space. And although I reserve the right to remain angry that he took his Robin Williams turn to the unbearably serious about ten years prematurely, I guess I can deal with it.

Now this isn’t really that bad a movie. The cast is good and there are some
great lines. Unfortunately, however, the film suffers from the typical premature release that comedy trailers tend to induce, having fired most of its best shots at you the night you snuck into A Guy Thing after emasculatingly watching The Hours all by yourself back in Februrary. Ok, maybe that was me, but you get the point.

The characters in the film are either flat, or, in the case of Carrey, forced. Someone once said something about how all comedians eventually end up doing impressions of themselves, and unfortunately Jim’s just about there. Most irksome are the tacked on "catch-phrases" that Carrey keeps uttering in hopes of rekindling the all-riggghhty-then spirit. It’s kind of sad really. After a more or less failed attempt at reinventing himself, Carrey’s tried to go home again and the result is pretty much a suburbanized, sun-tanned Ace Ventura reciting lines that didn’t quite make the cut for his earlier films. Whereas before he got your little cousin to quote him incessantly for a year or two, now your dad will watch Bruce Almighty, repeat "It’s B-E-A-utiful" once, you’ll give him that eyebrows raised, what a retard look, you’ll both be embarrassed, and life will go on unchanged. And just as bothersome is the fact that the film’s premise seems so full of potential. With the power of God, it seemed that Carrey, Shadyac and some decent writers couldn’t help but be hysterical. And while at times they succeed, the movie falls largely due to its lack of committal. It never quite decides if it wants to be a wacky comedy that makes just enough sense (a la Liar Liar) or a romantic comedy with a wacky premise (think What Women Want). The film straddles the fence, at one moment asking us to revel in its sheer goofiness, at others relying on it’s love story and commentary on humanity and divinity or whatever. The problem is that the movie doesn’t quite make enough sense or ring true enough emotionally to succeed as a romantic comedy, and isn’t quite funny or silly enough to be anything else. Also, as a professor of mine might say, "the jokes aren’t there." There are setups that don’t quite punch as hard as they could and there are moments that should be funny but aren’t.

So, we’re all that much older and that much less cool. But there’s still hope. Carrey’s in Charlie Kaufman’s next movie (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and maybe being involved with something as creative and out there as that promises to be will move Jim in a new, less cliched, direction. If you can’t be cool, you might as well be eccentric. And while I’m rooting for that, I’ll be more or less happy so long as he stays as far away from the seemingly inevitable fat suit, dress and wig that those before him have donned.

Rating 42%