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D IS FOR DEITY
EVAN ALMIGHTY (PG) Considering the current
culture war over the existence of God, a high-
concept comedy (some rumors say the $200
million budget makes Evan the most expensive
comedy ever) not only defending the existence of
a divine creator but casting him in the fatherly
figure of Morgan Freeman should be a box of
fice slam-dunk of biblical proportions. With Evan
Baxter (Steve Carell) bumped up from bit player
to lead, Evan Almighty
might better be called a
spinoff as opposed to a
sequel to the Jim Carrey
hit Bruce Almighty. The
Buffalo news anchor
has just won a seat in
Congress with his "Change
the World" campaign
when God shows up with
Ark Building for Dummies
and a prophesied flood.
All it takes to change
the world, according to
the Almighty, 3re acts of
random kindness. Why
then does he require
Evan to risk losing his
job—through which he
might actually affect change—and itis family
by undertaking such a grandiose task? That bit
of illogic is just one of the many things Evan
Almighty asks the viewer to accept on comedic
faith. We must accept Evan, with his gas-guz
zling SUV and penchant for endangered Brazilian
wood, not as a capitalist baddie like the movie's
villainous Congressman Long (John Goodman),
but as an Everyman attempting to keep up with
his new class of peers. We must disapprove when
Evan's put-upon wife (Lauren Graham) puts her
foot down and takes their three sons to her
mother's after her husband goes every which way
but crazy. For God's sake (literally), Evan is even
forced to grow a scraggly beard and dress like a
hermit... er, Old Testament prophet.
With its PG rating, Evan Almighty is fit for
everyone, good for no one—but Carell still de
lights. Too bad the subtle
manipulator who makes
the unconscionably in
sensitive Michael Scott of
NBC's "The Office" lovable
is pummeled with leftover
Carreyan physical comedy
and hounded at every
attempt to redeem the
squeamishly awkward with
force of wit. A little bit
AO-Year-Old Virgin, a little
bit "The Office," Evan
prohibits Carell from es
tablishing the modern-day
Noah as the genuine boor
he could entertainingly
be. The bloated budget
was ill-spent as well. The
flood should at least look real; neither should
the impressive menagerie of very real animals
appear superimposed. A lame attempt to co-opt
religion for box office gain, the sappy, blunt and
agenda-stunted Evan Almighty proselytizes in
such a garbled liberal Christian patois, it's liter
ally not even funny.
Drew Wheeler
Steve Carell
SANTA ANGELINA SHINES
A MIGHTY HEA3T (R) Summertime at the movies
does not usually include searing personal dramas
boasting bold performances sure to be remem
bered come awards season. It's even money that
Angelina Jolie will wake up early next year to
congratulatory phone calls. When big Hollywood
stars, long mired in box office and critical
slumps, finally step up to the plate and launch a
long ball, Oscar tends to notice, especially when
the star is also a former winner. Jolie's deeply
moving portrayal of
Mariane Pearl, the wife
of slain journalist Daniel
Pearl (Dan Futterman,
an Academy Award
nominee for his Capote
screenplay), tends
to obscure the other
strengths of Michael
Winterbottom's film. The
Road to Guantanamo
filmmaker—who pre
fers to shoot his films
in documentary-like
fashion—unflinchingly
looks upon heroism
in a post-9/11 world
and finds it intact and not a I’ttle bit confused
about how to proceed. The mighty heart of the
title may singularly refer to Mariane, six months
pregnant with son Adam, but Winterbottom's
search for Daniel Pearl, adapted by John Orloff
from Mariane Pearl's book, is powe»ed by many
such hearts. The Pakistani Captain (Irfan Khan,
The Namesake), bloodthirsty American diplomat
Randall Bennett (Will Patton, Remember the
Titans), Indian journalist and friend Asra Nomani
(Archie Panjabi, Bend It Like Beckham), Wall
Street Journal colleagues John Bussey and Steve
LeVine (Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare and Obie
Award winner Gary Wilmes), and even the ab-
ductee himself, who lives on through flashbacks,
steadily renew their hope, despite several dead
ends and the ultimate anguish awaiting them.
Nonetheless, the mightiest heart and loudest
voice belong to Mariane and the film belongs
to Jolie. The star withholds any actorly grand-
standing until che inevitably heart-wrenching
conclusion. Jolie dams
her emotions to create
Mariane's reservoir of
strength, incorrectly
supposed to be callous
and uncaring by an
interviewer in the film.
The intensity with which
Jolie holds back only
makes the moment when
she breaks down that
much more formidably
real. Khan, in his second
compelling performance
of the year, imbues the
Captain with the cold
wrath of a Pakistani
Dirty Harry—he is afraid of the bad public rela
tions the death of a westerner will spawn for
his country—and the warmth of personal ac
countability as he seeks the men responsible for
Daniel's abduction. Refreshingly, the non-Western
authority is not a bumbling idiot or corrupt
coward, and he eventually gets his man. As a
vacation from the escapism of summer cinema, A
Mighty Heart beats strongly.
Drew Wheeler
Angelina Jolie
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