 July
2007
This month's reviews/features:
Evan Almighty
Ark Building for Dummies
In 2003, we had Bruce Almighty.
Now, in 2007, we have Evan Almighty. This new movie
has already shown signs of earning a big profit and has been heavily
advertised on Christian radio. But is Evan Almighty
appropriate or desirable for viewing by a Christian audience?
If you don’t remember Bruce Almighty too well or
didn’t see it, here’s the gist of the Almighty series: God (played
by Morgan Freeman in both pictures) chooses to speak to humanity
through two TV news anchormen in Buffalo, Bruce Nolan the first time
and Evan Baxter the second. God had worked his will through Bruce,
and he now does the same through Evan. As Evan Almighty
opens, we learn that Evan has just been elected to Congress on a
platform of “changing the world.” He promptly moves his wife and
three sons to D.C., where he is soon buttonholed by the (slimy)
Congressman Long and enlisted in the congressman’s CINPLAN to
exploit the national parks under the guise of environmental
improvement. God has other ideas, however; he appears to Evan and
gently but firmly commands him to build an ark because a flood is
coming. (Sound a bit familiar?) Evan disbelieves, saying, “Do I know
you?” God replies, “Not as much as I’d like.” Evan at first resists
the command, but God will not take no for an answer. When his alarm
clock starts coming on at 6:14 every morning (i. e, Genesis 6:14:
“So make yourself an ark …”), Evan realizes that something pretty
significant is up, especially when a large load of lumber is
delivered to his front yard. His beard soon starts to grow and
re-sprouts whenever he tries to shave it off, and his hair grows
long and shaggy. It isn’t long before Evan experiences a real
conversion and actually starts to build the ark. As we would
predict, he is scorned by his neighbors and colleagues and for a
time is even deserted by his family. Meanwhile, pairs of all kinds
of animals descend on Evan’s property. In one of the movie’s
funniest lines, Evan shouts to the animals, “I need help. Who has
opposable thumbs? Anybody?”
So what are we to make of this picture? Well, it has negatives
and positives:
On the negative side:
1. There are a number of misuses of God’s name in the expression “Oh
my …..” and the like.
2. Faulty theology: God tells Evan that the principal reason he sent
the flood the first time was that people weren’t doing enough Acts
of Random Kindness
[= ARK]. This is not true; God destroyed most life on earth because
man had become sinful.
3. As in Bruce Almighty, God is anthropomorphized and
comes off too much as a good buddy and not enough as a holy figure.
On the positive side:
1. It’s a treat to watch the animals, both real and
computer-generated.
2. The picture has wise things to say about family life and about
prayer. Evan prays, his wife prays, and his kids pray. Prayer is
answered. God suggests that a proper way to ask for something might
be to request opportunities to deal with a problem instead of just
asking him to fix the problem.
3. The movie is unabashedly accepting of Scripture and shows
reverence for the Lord. Evan Almighty is theistic, not
deistic or pantheistic.
Bottom line: Dr. James Dobson, in an addendum to the
review by Focus on the Family’s
Plugged-In Online,
notes that he personally cannot recommend the movie (largely because
of its faulty theology) but thinks Christian moviegoers should
decide for themselves. I agree. At the very least, it will make you
think.
Film Rating: PG
Rating: 3
stars
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Index of movie
reviews...
(2003 reviews through present)
Jay Maurer, a member of West Side Presbyterian Church, is
a long-term movie buff and former college teacher of The Film as
Literature. He has written movie reviews for The Good News
(West Side newsletter) since 2002.
If you have comments or questions
about the movie (or play) reviews, please contact Jay at
dramachap@msn.com.
Ratings are expressed in
increments of ¼ star.
A rating of 2 ½ stars or higher is meant to be a recommendation.
1 star: poor
2 stars: minimally satisfactory
3 stars: quite good
4 stars: superb
Criteria for determining the ratings:
- Reflection, either explicit or implicit, of Christian values,
including suitability of language and lack of gratuitous violence
- Quality of the acting
- Originality
- Unity of the entire picture
- Substance, or in the words of C.S. Lewis, weight
Other Christian movie review Web sites:
Plugged In Online
ChristianityTodayMovies.com
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