Bruce Almighty

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Bruce Almighty (2003) is a comedy movie directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. It stars Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston.

Steve Carell, Catherine Bell, and Philip Baker Hall co-star. Tony Bennett and "Juan Valdez" make cameo appearances.

The tagline of the movie is In Bruce We Trust? Another, lesser seen tagline was The guy next door just became The Man upstairs.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Controversy and reaction
- 3.1 Telephone numbers
4 Sequel
5 Cast and crew
- 5.1 Cast
- 5.2 Crew
6 Box office
7 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a TV news reporter at Eyewitness News Channel 7 in Buffalo, New York (WKBW-TV) who fails to get a job as an anchorman and, after a series of other bad luck incidents, complains to God that He is treating him unfairly and is doing a poor job as supreme deity. Bruce is then contacted by God (Morgan Freeman) and endowed with almighty powers to prove that he can do a better job. Bruce quickly abuses his new-found powers for personal gain, only to be reminded that he also has to take care of other people's problems. Meanwhile, Bruce endangers his relationship with girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) through his self-centered behavior. In the end, Bruce realizes that God's powers are best left for God to handle and graciously asks for God to take control of his life.

The movie surprisingly features God as a wise, but smart-alec middle-aged man. God quotes a line from one of Carrey's other movies ("Alrighty then", from Ace Ventura), and tells Bruce that if he wants, Bruce can fix all the world in a few minutes, knowing full well from millennia of experience that he cannot. God is also cast in a sort of sympathetic light. Bruce receives tens of thousands of prayers, all from, according to God, his single town. Having to listen to the prayers of the whole world, one can only imagine how God feels. This also serves to explain why God frequently does not answer prayers: Bruce types at super-sonic speed to answer prayers, only to end up with more than he starts with, and he realizes with horror that merely answering prayers will take up his whole life. As Bruce and God themselves put it in two scenes:

Bruce: How do you make so many people love you without affecting free will?

God: Welcome to my world.

And a second scene over prayers

God: You made a mess of things, huh?

Bruce: I just gave them what they wanted. [Bruce answered YES to all his prayers]

God: Yeah, but since when does anyone know what they want?

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Trivia

The film was shot in the same locations as the Back to the Future films as seen in the sequence of the town going crazy (although the familiar clock tower clock has been covered) and the scene with Grace jogging was shot on the same street as the one in Back to the Future where Marty McFly followed his 1955 father to Lorraine's house.
Jim Carrey actually owns and drives the Saleen 7 he uses in the film.

Template:Endspoiler

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Controversy and reaction

The film carefully avoids religious controversy as God seems to be of no particular denomination and few theological questions are discussed, with exception of Jesus (walking on water), Moses (Bruce parting his tomato soup), one quote from the Bible ("thou shalt not tempt the Lord."), and a gag about the Tetragrammaton (Bruce's e-mail service is "Yaweh!"). Issues such as omnipotence and omniscience are not explored in any detail as most of the film is set in the area of Buffalo, New York, as God only gives him management of part of Buffalo. The only hint at this is that the building Bruce meets God in is called "Omni Presents". The film does, however, take a clear stance on the issue of predestination, as the only restriction for Bruce, and presumably God, is that he cannot affect peoples' free will.
The movie was banned in Egypt due to pressure from Islamic religious circuits who objected to the portrayal of God in the form of a human being.
There were also rigorous protests from a small, but vocal, faction of the otherwise liberal Muslim population in Malaysia. The government did not outlaw its screening, and Bruce Almighty still appears occasionally, albeit heavily edited, on Malaysian satellite television.
Some contend that Robert Bausch, author of the book Almighty Me, is the original creator of the Bruce Almighty storyline, citing similarities between the book and movie. Bausch had no credit toward officially creating the story.

The movie received relatively positive reviews, and took in nearly $243 million, making it Jim Carrey's most successful film since 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

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Telephone numbers

The film caused controversy because God contacts Bruce using an actual phone number rather than a number in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange. Several people and groups sharing this number have received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God. The producers note that the number chosen was not in use in the area the film is set in, but did not check anywhere else.

The original telephone number was 776-2323 [1], no area code was included. The home video and television versions changed the display of the pager to 555-0123, and the voice that says "Why, hello, 555-0123" is not that of Jim Carrey.

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Sequel

A sequel, tentatively called Evan Almighty, is currently in the planning stages and is slated to star Steve Carell, who had a minor role in Bruce Almighty. Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston declined to reprise their roles in the film, but Morgan Freeman is currently in negotiations to return. Production is scheduled to begin in early 2006. The movie apparently involves a second great flood, with Evan Baxter (Carell) chosen by God to build an ark to survive it. The sequel co-stars Lauren Graham and John Goodman

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Cast and crew

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Cast

Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan
Morgan Freeman as God
Jennifer Aniston as Grace Connelly
Lisa Ann Walter as Debbie
Philip Baker Hall as Jack Baylor
Steve Carell as Evan Baxter
Catherine Bell as Susan Ortega
Sally Kirkland as Anita Mann
Nora Dunn as Ally Loman
Jack Jozefson as the "Homeless Man"

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Crew

Director: Tom Shadyac
Writer: Steve Koren
Writer: Mark O'Keefe
Writer: Steve Oedekerk

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Box office

Bruce Almighty is the second highest grossing live-action comedy of all time, grossing $458 million worldwide. The film trails only Home Alone, and has out-earned Meet the Fockers and Mrs. Doubtfire.

During its opening three days in the United States, the film earned $67 million, and $85 million over the 4-day Memorial weekend, a respectable sum for a film with an $81 million budget.

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