What I learned from Bruce Almighty

The author, a Mass Communication student, loves music, the movies, reading and cooking.

What would you do if God gave you His powers? Would you be so selfish as to use it just for your own desires? These questions ran through my mind after watching Jim Carrey in the hilarious movie Bruce Almighty. Coming from the director of the hit comedy Liar, Liar (also starring Carrey), this movie will surely crack you up.

Jim plays Bruce Nolan, a wacky news reporter who works at a local tv station in Buffalo. He lives with his beautiful girlfriend Grace(Jennifer Aniston), and a dog named Sam. Sounds like a pretty good life, right? Bruce doesn’t think so.

He complains about everything. He’s not very happy with his life, especially his career. Bruce wants to become anchor, but feels his chances of becoming one is impossible because his producer isn’t giving him the big break he thinks he needs.

Still hoping to bag the spot, Bruce takes an assignment to do a live coverage on Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, his biggest rival, the arrogant Evan Baxter gets the position. Devastated, Bruce makes a total fool of himself and completely ruins his career on live TV. Losing a job is terrible. But trying to help a homeless old man just outside the station from a bunch of morons and being beaten up in return, is even worse.

Bruce goes home so mad, he takes it out on poor Grace. Furious, he blames everything on God. So, he asks for a miracle because he thinks God is ignoring him.

Bruce got God’s attention all right. God, played by one of the most respected actors in Hollywood today, Morgan Freeman, gave Bruce His powers just to see if he could do a better job than Him.

This is where the fun begins, as Bruce went on a power trip. One of my favorite scenes was when he parted his tomato soup a la Moses. Another scene that got me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe was when he tried to snatch the anchor position from Evan by using his powers on him. Bruce manipulates Evan like a stupid dummy, on a live broadcast.

Soon enough, Evan is booted out and Bruce gets the job, just the way he wants things to be. But he seems to forget the reason why God gave him power. Just as he thought things were going smoothly, he starts to hear loud voices in his head–prayers.

These prayers come from millions of people he is supposed to help .

So with his powers and today’s technology, Bruce arranges all prayers into e-mails, thinking it’s the easiest way. Too lazy to answer each prayer, Bruce answers "yes" to all of them.

Unaware of his imprudent abuse of power that brings on chaos and the loss of Grace in his life, Bruce learns that he doesn’t need powers for a miracle to happen. He can actually help other people, and himself in the simplest way.

After realizing he can’t have everything he wants, including winning back the love of his life (because he can’t mess up with free will), Bruce gives up everything. He lets God decide what’s really good for him. And for the first time in his life, Bruce wants happiness, not for himself, but for Grace.

The moral of the movie is plain and simple. We all keep complaining about the smallest things, when there’s really nothing to complain about. Bruce has a great life, a great career and an amazing girlfriend. Apparently, it wasn’t good enough for him.

Self-gratification is human nature. Reaching for your dreams is good. But an individual’s neverending craving for satisfaction is evil. We should all know that happiness is not a personal gain, but it’s supposedly something that we should feel if we think we’ve helped or done something for those in need, even in the smallest way.

I’m not saying we should all be heroes and martyrs. What I’m saying is, we should simply be thankful to God for everything He has given us. Count our blessings, not our problems.

Everyday is a struggle for each of us. If you fall flat on your face, get up and use it as a motivation. I know it’s easier said than done, but instead of whining, do something good about it. Be the miracle.

I don’t have the most perfect life in the world, and I sure do a lot of complaining like Bruce. I guess we all do. Life is simple. It only gets complicated due to our own idiosyncrasies and irrational behavior.

I am a religious person, but after seeing this movie, I appreciated what I have right now and the blessings God has given me. Most importantly, I realized God has the hardest, toughest and the most difficult job in the world.

So if you like Jim Carrey, if you want to laugh and have spiritual enlightenment at the same time, don’t miss out on this movie!

I wonder though if God really had that sense of humor the way Morgan Freeman portrayed Him to be. And does God really take a vacation on top of Mount Everest? I can’t help but wonder.