Scriptwriters Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe did their homework in illustrating aspects of Christian theology in this Jim Carey comedy. Bruce Nolan (Jim Carey) is an ambitious, frustrated TV reporter. He is regularly assigned to cover humorous human-interest stories, and repeatedly passed over for the prime job of news anchor. When he vents his anger live on camera, he loses his job entirely. His personal life isn’t going well either. His live-in girlfriend, aptly named Grace (Jennifer Aniston), is frustrated with his selfish preoccupations and lack of interest in marriage. He can’t even house-train his dog. After crashing his car in the midst of a prayer for help, he loses his temper and basically calls God out: “Smite me, O mighty smiter!”

God does indeed respond in the triune character played by Morgan Freeman, who works at a building called Omni Presents as, simultaneously, the janitor, the electrician, and the boss. Bruce first encounters the servant-God mopping the floor, but refuses to join him in his work. Nor does he recognize God as the electrician who blinds him with bright light. Only when the coveralls come off and God the boss emerges in a natty white suit, does Bruce stick around long enough to hear God’s explanation of the situation and His proposal. God is tired of Bruce’s complaining and has decided to turn his job over to Bruce while He goes on vacation.

God is portrayed as omniscient, omnipresent, patient, and nurturing, but a little bit scary as he confronts Bruce with his complaining and shows up from time to time to offer advice. God also has a good sense of humor. He is proud of His creation, Bruce, and loves him. He seems to enjoy being with Bruce and to want to be in a relationship with him. It would be hard to find an actor who could surpass Morgan Freeman’s performance as God. He is, in turns, soft-spoken, silly, and serious.

Bruce only slowly becomes convinced of his new powers, but soon enjoys himself righting all the wrongs in his own life. He arranges amazing breaking news stories that he alone is able to cover, such as the uncovering of Jimmy Hoffa’s body buried in a shallow grave with birth certificate and dental records for easy identification. He revenges himself on his enemies in some of the funniest scenes in the movie. He enhances Grace’s bust, gets a hot new car (license plate reads “Almighty 1”), parts the traffic (and his tomato soup), pours wine from a water pitcher, has great sex, gets the anchor job, walks on water, and becomes very attractive to women in general. Unfortunately, none of these things that he thought he wanted make up for the fact that Grace chooses to leave him and he fails to convince her to return. Even the almighty deity has to respect free will.

Meanwhile, each of his actions is negatively affecting others around him. His patience is taxed by all the prayers of the populace, so he uniformly answers “yes” to everyone. Society crumbles as everyone gets what they want, rather than what they need. Finally, Bruce surrenders to God’s will, kneeling on a rain-slicked highway. He is promptly killed by a semi, which gives God the opportunity to finally drive home the lesson. Bruce prays the first unselfish prayer of his life, that Grace would find happiness and love, even with someone else. God answers this prayer by returning Bruce to his body and reuniting him with Grace, who lives up to her name. During their reunion in the hospital, Bruce receives a transfusion of blood that Grace donated earlier in the movie. Not quite saved by the blood of Christ, but close.

It is interesting to speculate on what the director Tom Shadyac means by this ending. Clearly, Bruce needed to learn to be less selfish in order to be successful in his personal relationships. Is this all he needed to learn? Couldn’t a good therapist have gotten him to see that? Or, was his somewhat cheesy surrender to God’s will what he needed to experience? Will his relationship with God continue? Will he allow God to begin to point out the other sins in his life, such as a sexual relationship with Grace before marriage? (The director cleverly addresses this problem by implying that they will marry, not because that is what God wants, but because that is what Grace wants and the new unselfish Bruce will honor that.)

Unselfishness is clearly part of the fruit the Holy Spirit injects into our lives. It is a big part of being Christ-like. I don’t think, however, that it sums up Christianity. I resist the idea that Christianity is another self-improvement program to help us all live more fulfilling lives. It really is about putting God first. It is about what He is doing in the world and how we fit into that. I’m afraid that it often puts us in uncomfortable situations, rather than making our lives easier and happier. Bruce’s transformation hints at this as he not only sincerely apologizes to his wronged co-worker (never fun or easy), but also declines the job as anchor in order to stay with his God-given skills in comedy, and spends time helping the servant-God mop up the floor.

Those of us who enjoyed Bruce Almighty can look forward to a sequel (should we ever look forward to sequels?) starring Steve Carrell and Morgan Freeman entitled Evan Almighty. Planned for release in 2007, this film projects the career of Steve Carrell’s character Evan Baxter (the aggrieved newscaster in Bruce Almighty) into the future. Evan will have left the anchor position and successfully run for Congress when God will appear to him and asks him to build the ark. (Given the threat of global warning, this just might be culturally relevant!)