Hilary and I took the kids to see Evan Almighty
the other day. What a fantastic film it is! Apart from anything else it
was a great family entertainment film, enjoyable by both adults and
kids alike. All the animals and visual gags make sure the youngest ones
are kept happy throughout (although the music was a bit loud for our
youngest occassionally), and the story and action kept the older ones
and the parents happy.
The story is about a newsreader, Evan Baxter (who was briefly in the
previous film Bruce Almighty alongside the main character played by Jim
Carey), who becomes a senator and takes his family off to a new rich
and high powered life. But Evan is too busy for his family, until God
answers his prayers to help him change the world and calls on Evan to
build an Ark!
What follows is a hilarious tale of Evan Baxter turning into Noah,
complete with uncontrollable beard and hair growth, gigantic boat
building, herds of animals following him through the town, into work,
everywhere he goes.
I won't give the game away with how the story unfolds, but it is a brilliant film from beginning to end.
There's some wonderful touches and messages about God though. My
favourite bit is where God (played by Morgan Freeman again) just cracks
up laughing when Evan tells God he can't build the Ark for him as he
has plans. "Plans!" laughs God, "Your plans?!" he cracks up. It's
really funny watching God rolling around laughing like that, but proves
the point that we think we've got life all sewn up without God and then
life chucks us a curve ball which we could never have seen.
