Bruce Almighty!
We’ve just watched the movie Bruce Almighty. Jim Carrey is not my favourite actor – he’s too wacky for my taste – but the movie surprised me with some of its hidden depth.
If you haven’t seen it, its about a guy called Bruce who rages against God for all that goes wrong in his life. God then steps in and says: “Have my powers for a while, but you can’t mess with free will.” Bruce is fundamentally selfish and uses his power for all sorts of inappropriate things and sees the consequences of his foolish acts of power. For example, his little party trick to impress his girlfriend by drawing the moon nearer causes a tsunami in the far east.
One of his responsibilities is to answer all the prayers in his town. He is overwhelmed by the numbers of requests so decides to just grant them all, with dire consequences. For example, 400000 people win the same lottery and riots ensue when they each only get $17.
His girlfriend eventually leaves him and he asks God: “How can I make her love me and not affect free will?” God answers dryly: “Welcome to my world!”
Other lines include: “that’s not a miracle, that’s magic” and “they don’t know what they want.”
God has bound his hands in order to allow us the glorious gift of freewill and this, along with the delicate balance of the universe, will affect how He answers our prayers.
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- jinksy: Wise man indeed! LOL
- Billy Carter-Smith: Read a lot of your stuff, all very enjoyable. If I’m not missing the point, I think this...
- LegalMist: oooh, I like it…
- LegalMist: hahahaha! good one! (and probably more true than not….)
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that is so interesting, robert!! i saw that movie not long after it came out. you are definitely very perceptive because i wouldnt have EVER pulled your thoughts out of that movie. very cool.
i just recently saw “evan almighty” with steve carell. strangely, i was truly touched by it despite its goofiness! you should watch it and tell us what you think!
We think we know what we want and what is good for us. We don’t have a clue! Most of my choices have been nothing more than pathetic. I’ve got the mental and physical scars to prove it. My life is much better in His hands.
Did like the movie though.
His girlfriend eventually leaves him and he asks God: “How can I make her love me and not affect free will?” God answers dryly: “Welcome to my world!”
I saw the movie long ago, but I missed the deepness of this exchange. Thanks for pointing it out!
How strange… the spiritual messages hit me so hard that I missed the end of the movie because I had to write down my thoughts!
Hey Robert, thanks for the insight. I had decided not to watch ‘Bruce Almighty’ because a few friends of mine had and found no redeeming qualities. I think I’ll give it a look for myself – it seems there’s no end of surprises as to where spiritual insight can be found. Thanks!
Thanks Robert for this post. I watched the film sometime ago. The only lesson I could learn from it was the fact that “Man doesn’t really know what he really want, and what is good for him”
Many of us would have gotten into greater trouble with our so called wants if not for the Tender-mercies of the LORD.
Happy New Year
LOL, OK, I’m laughing because of
A) all the people who won’t watch this movie and will miss all the profound insight in it.
B) You are just now watching it!!!
I actually showed part of this movie in church. It’s amazing how many movies have the redemptive story in them and people miss it.
Found your blog from Relevant Christian
My kids will tell you that I’m not with it, so its not suprising we only watched it now. Also, I prejudged the movie and thought it would be irreligious. How wrong I was.
How much we all miss when we prejudge. Excellent thoughts.
That movie is definitely a lesson against “playing God”. I enjoyed it, but felt that there was something missing from it that I couldn’t put my finger on.
I completely agree with you. I cannot help but like the movie because of its depth. Even though I do not enjoy Jim Carey either, both this movie and the Truman Show really cut into deep themes in many people’s life and make them extremely relatable.
I would not go as far to say that it is a good christian movie, but certainly many truths could be pulled out.