Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Evan help us all
Well as you know, I had free tickets to see Evan Almighty last night, so HP, Sister D and SoHo went with me. We were all rather skeptical going into it, especially when the kindly old Baptist deacon man greeted us and asked, "Do you have a camera on your cell phone there, Sister Beth?" But despite the skepticism, we pressed on. Our bags were checked thoroughly for cameras of all sorts, though thank goodness they didn't care about the Baked Lays, chocolate chip cookie and Diet Coke I was smuggling in.
We took our seats in the third row. It was the only row that had four seats all together apart from the first and second rows. Apparently a lot of people RSVP'd for this event as they told us to get there early to claim our seats because they might have to turn people away. I don't know about all that, but we did have to sit rather close to the screen in a film that included a lot of straight-on close-ups.
I was worried going into this movie, just as I was going into Bruce Almighty, that they were going to just horribly misrepresent God, and I was pleasantly surprised that they got at least one aspect of him right on the money. The overriding message of the movie was that God loves us, and everything he does, he does because he loves us. Even the things that make us feel like God's out to get us are actually happening because of his love for us. And when everything's just going crazy in his life, Evan expresses perfectly what most of us have felt at some point when he says, "I know you do everything because you love me. Could you love me a little less?" But in the end, he sees the point of everything he went through, and it all makes sense, and it turns out that everything God did actually was for Evan's good and the good of his family (and the world, if you really think about it).
I also liked how they explored a pretty typical American opinion; that is, everyone should pray, but if you claim God talks back to you, you're a nut job. We all, on occasion, ask for God's help, provision, intervention, etc., but we don't like how he goes about helping, providing or intervening for us, so we continue trying to do it ourselves and complaining about "Where was God when I needed him?" Oh, and there's one part where Evan starts talking about the ark not fitting into his plans, and God, upon hearing of all Evan's plans, just starts cracking up. I have to say...I love Morgan Freeman as God. I just do.
I just have a few criticisms.
The whole long hair/white beard gag was a little too Santa Clause for me, but I think they did it because God was trying to get Evan to stop caring so much about his appearance. And it turned out to be unnecessary for all the animals to come to him two-by-two, but God was trying to get him to stop thinking of animals as being dirty, AND it made for some really funny scenes.
They made it seem like all God wants is for us to be nice to each other. There was a big, cheesy push for Acts of Random Kindness (get it? ARK), and that's a great way to live. I just think there's more to it than that.
And none of us were really buying Lorelai Gilmore as a politician's wife. She was just a little too hip in style to be in politics, but a litle too Stepford as a wife to be that hip. She came around some in the end and made a little more sense as a character, but she never quite made it to realistic.
Over all, though, it was enjoyable movie experience for me. It was thought- and conversation-provoking, and Steve Carell is just fabulous with physical comedy. The scene when all the animals start following him and the sheep are in the back of the Hummer...hilarious. Check it out at some point, even if you wait for it to go to the $1.50 theater or to DVD. In my humble opinion, it's worth the hour and a half of your life.
We took our seats in the third row. It was the only row that had four seats all together apart from the first and second rows. Apparently a lot of people RSVP'd for this event as they told us to get there early to claim our seats because they might have to turn people away. I don't know about all that, but we did have to sit rather close to the screen in a film that included a lot of straight-on close-ups.
I was worried going into this movie, just as I was going into Bruce Almighty, that they were going to just horribly misrepresent God, and I was pleasantly surprised that they got at least one aspect of him right on the money. The overriding message of the movie was that God loves us, and everything he does, he does because he loves us. Even the things that make us feel like God's out to get us are actually happening because of his love for us. And when everything's just going crazy in his life, Evan expresses perfectly what most of us have felt at some point when he says, "I know you do everything because you love me. Could you love me a little less?" But in the end, he sees the point of everything he went through, and it all makes sense, and it turns out that everything God did actually was for Evan's good and the good of his family (and the world, if you really think about it).
I also liked how they explored a pretty typical American opinion; that is, everyone should pray, but if you claim God talks back to you, you're a nut job. We all, on occasion, ask for God's help, provision, intervention, etc., but we don't like how he goes about helping, providing or intervening for us, so we continue trying to do it ourselves and complaining about "Where was God when I needed him?" Oh, and there's one part where Evan starts talking about the ark not fitting into his plans, and God, upon hearing of all Evan's plans, just starts cracking up. I have to say...I love Morgan Freeman as God. I just do.
I just have a few criticisms.
The whole long hair/white beard gag was a little too Santa Clause for me, but I think they did it because God was trying to get Evan to stop caring so much about his appearance. And it turned out to be unnecessary for all the animals to come to him two-by-two, but God was trying to get him to stop thinking of animals as being dirty, AND it made for some really funny scenes.
They made it seem like all God wants is for us to be nice to each other. There was a big, cheesy push for Acts of Random Kindness (get it? ARK), and that's a great way to live. I just think there's more to it than that.
And none of us were really buying Lorelai Gilmore as a politician's wife. She was just a little too hip in style to be in politics, but a litle too Stepford as a wife to be that hip. She came around some in the end and made a little more sense as a character, but she never quite made it to realistic.
Over all, though, it was enjoyable movie experience for me. It was thought- and conversation-provoking, and Steve Carell is just fabulous with physical comedy. The scene when all the animals start following him and the sheep are in the back of the Hummer...hilarious. Check it out at some point, even if you wait for it to go to the $1.50 theater or to DVD. In my humble opinion, it's worth the hour and a half of your life.
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