This morning was like any ordinary day. Woke up. Ate. Changed. Beautified my eyebrows with a wax and then prayed at a weekly novena... On the way home, a lady bug landed on my window, as if gravitated to my presence by some inner kinship unspoken by a much higher force between us. My family decided we were to see EVAN ALMIGHTy but debated whether we'd miss the 5:45 show. Knowing past encounters from being a movie fiend with a few minutes to spare before the movie starts, I realized that even though we were just pulling out of the drive way by 5:30 knowing a 20 minute ride was ahead, I had to have faith that as soon as I sat down in my cushioned theater chair that the last credits would roll with the words DIRECTED BY Steve Odekirk, popcorn in hand and just in time for the movie! As always, it never failed.... And then it hit me as I watched this film, God does work in subtle ways, watching our every move and preparing our next steps, communicating in small ways. Though what I'll explain in the following will be lost to those who are not me and unable to associate little things that connect with the film with my personal experience, I hope that those who do read this and see the film will appreciate the film's themes:
1) Family
2) Conservationism/Environmentalism
3) Faith in the heat of criticism, ridicule, and risk of losing everything
4) Corruption and materialism
5) Individual responsibility/Random acts of Kindness (e.g., in changing the world)
Before putting my personal spin to this film, I have to laud Steve Carrell for another performance. He has chosen a career path unlike any other. His comedy is unique, though all successes of great comics lie in their ability to maintain their individuality among a slew of others doing the same thing. Steve Carrell also portrays Evan in ways that present hints of a budding dramatic actor that has the potential to make an audience weep with a range to dance into our hearts with bizarre waves of humor and obscure pop culture references (Gomer Pyle's "Golllllllleeee"). His character in the film is different and yet in some ways similar to his character Michael from The Office. The two collide in their desperation to be understood, though they diverge in their ways of gaining sympathy from others. Evan's persistence to be understood by others has him ridiculed by others and accussed of being mentally unstable, he continues with everyone in the end seeing it his way with redemption in the way his life is changed thereafter. On the other hand, Michael's desperation for love and attention and understanding leads him to nearly just as bizarre behavior, but constant practice of such behavior only isolates him from his employees who will always continue to think he is insane. I look forward to Carrell portraying more serios and darker roles in the future which could not hurt his career but escalate him even further even beyond Robin William's caliber I dare say!
(SIDE BAR: To THE OFFICE fans, you'll be able to see some cameos of Dundees such as Andy who in the film has some airtime as anchorman, whereas a cameo of Martin can be seen if you watch the ark scene as they near the capital building!)
As for the themes mentioned above, I nearly cried much to the credit again to the acting of Steve Carell but let's not forget Morgan Freeman. In discussing the film afterwards, my mother made an astute comparison how the ALMIGHTY series is our generation's Oh God! films that featured George Burns as God. With the move in special effects, the ALMIGHTY films outdo Burns 100 fold but perhaps the proselytyzing is preserved in both generations. Evan's wife, Joan, who separted briefly with the kids in the midst of things getting out of control, is told by God : When you ask for patience, are you immediately patient at that time or are you given the opportunity to be patient? When you ask for courage, are you given courage or the opportunity to be courageous? And when you ask for family to be closer, do you get a quick warm, fuzzy feeling or given the opportunity to be closer?...Then he takes his opportunity to leave and in his absence, Joan is blessed with a return of food in a once empty plate....Indeed, ask and you shall receive! I wish God appears to me one day in a Starbucks :)
Side by side, in speaking about the ark as a love story, God emphasizes the need to have two people stick together whatever comes their way! And in truth, this is a message that should be shared more often than not. This is a time with families more divided emotionally distant through technology and materialism (note the gorgeous house and Hummer that Evan lives and drives, only to be driven into an oblivion making a huge statement that we certainly cannot take what we reap on earth with us where it matters! ) Corruption also rears its face and brings a throwback to the tragedy of the New Orleans plight caused by Katrina and the flood victims that followed in the aftermath. Though there was no Evan to save our real world, how beautiful to have film as a medium to get the message across that "cutting corners" will lead to consequences. Other sources of corruption is filtering money from cutting corners in efforts to create dams of low quality and then later using that money and clout to create a bill that will only destroy the earth of its beautiful land resources...Here is where the land and animals converge together to make their mark within a veiled attempt to respond in AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH fashion.
Faith in the heat of being told you are crazy is true belief in God. To lose your life is to gain your life, as the Bible is oft quoted. How appropirate in the end for Evan's case. As his days prior to building the ark seemed like a breakdown, he resisted human influence and trusted the unknown. In a world where we trust humans and the sometimes devastating consequences that can occur when that trust is left in inappropriate hands, we may need to build an ark in our own hearts to survive the flood of the culture that barrages us now with innappropirate lifestyles and selfish acquisitions we so much desire but are not so much in dire need of. How can we change the world? With an act of random kindness (A.R.K.)!
---------------- My Personal Connection -----------------------Evan Almighty-----------------
Because we arrived about 6:00 at the theater, I'm guessing I did arrive at my seat about 6:14? Coincidentally, everyday Evan wakes up, it is at this time which matches the Genesis verse where Noah is called upon God to build an ark made of gopher wood. Parts that made me cry, was already mentioned, that between Evan's wife and God, because I have often asked for courage, patience, and family to be closer-now I know I must pay attention to God's signs of those opportunities He must be sending but I've been ignoring.
