There seems to been something of a conspiracy among many in the main stream media to trash the new film Evan Almighty. Most critics from the major news media outlets like the New York Times, MSNBC.com, the Associated Press and even Foxnews.com panned it. The Hollywood trade magazine The Daily Variety dismissed it too. Meanwhile the Christian media outlets MoiveGuide.org, CBN.com and Focus’ Family.org all liked it. I saw the film opening weekend at a late screening time in the Los Angeles area, and even at that time, the theater was mostly full despite it being PG family-friendly film. I along with what seemed like most everyone else in attendance laughed hard throughout the movie. When the movie ended, many (perhaps most) in the audience spontaneously clapped in joyful satisfaction at seeing a good film. It leaves one wondering why the hostility. The movie is good and very entertaining, so it must be the content that is garnering all the negative response.
The film portrays a modern-day Noah of sorts, Evan Baxter played by funnyman Steve Carell. He begins the story every bit as narcissistic and self-promoting as he did playing Jim Carrey’s rival newsman in Bruce Almighty. This time Evan has just successfully run for Congress under his campaign slogan of “Change the World.” Evan, suddenly recognizes the night before his first day as a congressman that he just may not be able to change the world on his own. Following his wife’s suggestion, he kneels at his bed and prays that God will help him. Well God (played by Morgan Freeman) shows up the next day, and gives Evan a mission to build an ark because there’s going to be a flood. Comedy ensues as the freshman congressman tries to deal with this new assignment and the effect his bizarre behavior has on his family and his new congressional colleagues. The film is respectful of the Bible. Evan even pulls out a copy of it to find a reference in Genesis. As an evangelical Christian with graduate degree from a Christian university, I found nothing in the film offensive to my faith, and much to affirm. The film is not overtly Christian, but a strong message that comes through is that following God can be very costly and difficult and cause you to look strange in the eyes of the world.
Perhaps it is this positive portrayal of faith that is causing the secular media to be so negative. The Daily Variety thought the movie would do well on ABC Family before the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club. The AP critic, Christy Lemire, describes the film as having “all-encompassing, none-too-subtle religiosity” and again thinks it should appear before the 700 Club. John Hartl of MSNBC.com writes that the more serious the script becomes “…the more uneasy the mixture of comedy and religiosity feels.” He also finds fault that scene when the animals board the ark feels like Cecile B. Demille’s, Ten Commandments. The scene in fact is beautifully shot and adds dimension to the movie. Every scene in a comedy does not have to be laugh out loud funny. Comedy is none-the-less throughout the film. The New York Times review by A.O. Scott seems to take issue with the faith aspect of the film also writing that is “combines bland religiosity and timid environmentalism into a soothing Sunday-school homily about the importance of being nice.” He also mocks the movie's premise observing that now the franchise can go on in the future by continuing to combine “naughty comedians with wholesome Bible stories.”
Mark Joseph, writing for Foxnews.com, comes at the movie the other way finding much in it that Christians would be offended by. His observations simply do not hold water (forgive the pun). His first point is that most conservative Christians are Republicans, and therefore will be turned off by the film’s central evil character being a congressman trying to use his position to promote a public dam project. He’s not identified as a Republican. It’s a clear homage to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, nothing more. Joseph also finds fault that the director is not an orthodox Christian. So what. If the movie is good and not offensive to traditional Christianity, that should be all that matters. This critic even believes that many Christians will be offended by a dance scene which takes place during the credits during which God turns around a copy of the Ten Commandments and the words “Thou shalt do the Dance” appear on the other side. I don’t think most Christians are that thin-skinned and can’t see it in the spirit in which it was intended. The scene is one of celebration and fun. Nothing lewd or lascivious. Nothing in my Bible tells me that God is opposed to good, clean fun. We learn in Proverbs that “Laughter is good medicine.” Nehemiah wrote that "the joy of the Lord is your strength." And Ecclesiastes tells us “there is a time to laugh…and a time to dance.”
Mr. Joseph has also already labeled the film a failure writing in his article “…the bomb that was (emphasis added) Evan Almighty…,” as if the film is already out of the theaters dead and gone. The LA Times and Reuters among others jumped on the box office bomb bandwagon too. Having lived and worked in Hollywood going on four years now (not for the film’s producer Universal by the way) and observed the box office numbers of many films, Joseph’s declaration is premature. Comedies unless they are animated movie sequels don’t tend to have huge openings. Its predecessor Bruce Almighty did open at $68 million over a Memorial Day weekend, but that was more based on Jim Carrey’s box office clout. Evan’s $32 million is typical if not a little on the high end for a good comedy opening weekend. Freaky Friday for example opened at a more typical $22 million in the summer of 2003 and went on to earn $110 million. There’s Something About Mary opened at $13 million and went on to earn $176 million. Talladega Nights on the very high end for most comedies opened at $47 million and went on to $149 million. Word of mouth must carry the film after opening weekend, and Evan does seem to have some decent legs. It came in number three at the box office last weekend in it second week out behind two major new releases, Disney’s Ratatouille and Die Hard. It now stands at over $60 million and based on that trajectory, the movie will end up making over $100 million in the United States. Evan only opened in two territories overseas so far and has already taken in over $3 million. When it is fully rolled out abroad, it will probably earn around twice as much as the United States for a grand total of over $300 million. That will hardly classify the movie as a bomb.
The critics are wrong. Christians and non-Christians alike will enjoy this film. To those who find fault because of its religious content and supposed lack of box office clout, the thought comes to mind “O ye of little faith.”
