Bruce Almighty (PG-13, 2003)

Jim Carrey is Bruce Nolan, a television news reporter who wants to do serious stories and he thinks he should be the anchor. When he loses the anchor job to a rival (Comedy Central "Daily Report's" Steve Carell), he furiously explodes on the air and is fired. He thinks that life is very unfair, and so he complains to God. God challenges him to try out His powers, as long as he does not tell anyone or interfere with free will. Bruce spends the first week using the powers for cheap thrills (he parts the red soup instead of the Red Sea and makes the cars blocking him in a traffic jam move out of the way) and petty payback. But then Bruce has to realize that power and responsibility go together and that he cannot be happy until he understands that other people's happiness has to come first.

Who wouldn't like to be able to do anything without any guilt or accountability? That part of BRUCE ALMIGHTY is fun and very funny, especially when Bruce makes his rival mess up on camera. But the part about Bruce's redemption is not successful, because viewers are never really persuaded that Bruce cares about anyone but himself. There is a hollow and even faintly creepy sense that the people behind the movie don't really believe the message themselves.

Bruce's carelessness in lassooing the moon (a reference to It's a Wonderful Life that is underscored later on when we get a glimpse of that scene on television), unleashing an asteroid, and making hundreds of lottery winners, is portrayed as humorous. Even though we get glimpses of the disasters he causes, Bruce never has to clean up the mess. And when Bruce tells God that he wants to solve the problems of world hunger and peace, God tells him that is a "Miss America answer" and His goal seems to be to get Bruce to think about what would make him happy with no regard for anyone but himself and the woman he loves. The result is a movie that, despite some very funny moments, makes the same mistake as its main character without learning any lessons about maturity or responsibility. It teeters between happily deranged comedy and sentimental fable, but is unsatisfying in both categories.