In the world of media that takes place in Western New York, Bruce Almighty occupies an odd spot. It’s probably the best-known bit that takes place in Buffalo, and star Jim Carrey is among the Toronto natives who has a soft spot for Buffalo due to the fact that he spent a lot of time there when he was a kid. And as far as Western New York-based fiction goes, Bruce Almighty makes a handful of Buffalo-based references and makes an effort to establish its setting; the characters work for a real Buffalo news station, cheer for the Buffalo Sabres (even taking the liberty of giving the team three Stanley Cups, when their real-life counterparts have never won any), a lot of backgrounds and setup shots are very definitely Buffalo, and there’s the requisite shout-out to Niagara Falls. That makes it a little strange that all the action scenes were shot in, of all places, San Diego. Not only is San Diego NOT Buffalo, it’s also further away from Buffalo than any other city in the continental United States.
Shooting the action in Bruce Almighty in San Diego is a strange choice. It’s not like anything would have been affected all that much had the movie been shot in The Nickel City itself. The shots of Bruce’s neighborhood openly feature row houses. ROW HOUSES! In BUFFALO! And even within the context of the movie, they’re not necessary – there aren’t any shots of Bruce interacting with the neighbors. Driving scenes could have been done on any old street. And if getting a good amount of sunlight was THAT important, well, it’s not like Buffalo is lacking for that, either. Especially in a movie which is clearly taking place in spring and summer. (One of the nicer things about Bruce Almighty’s Buffalo cred is that it doesn’t make any references to the city’s legendarily bad winter weather. There are NONE. Zero. Zip. And you know what? This movie is better for it!)
Bruce Almighty has been criticized a lot for its plot: Bruce Nolan is a TV news reporter. While he actually does have a pretty sweet gig, he’s still pissed off at the fact that his stories are mainly water-skiing squirrel-type fare, and in any case, he wants the lead chair. He’s also in a relationship with Grace, a woman played by Jennifer Aniston, of all people. He lives in a nice neighborhood that’s bustling with activity. But all is not right on Planet Bruce! He was denied his big promotion, and his ensuing public shitfit cost him his job. In a fit of rage, he curses out the Big Guy Himself (“Smite me, oh mighty smiter!”). And, well, God seems to take it personally, so he offers to hold Bruce’s beer while he gifts Bruce with all his divine powers and challenges him to do better. Bruce takes his new divine status and fucks over everything and everyone, to hilarious results! The criticism usually comes from the angle that Bruce has such an obviously great life but still sees it fit to throw shade on the Almighty, but that’s kind of the point. Bruce has everything he could ever want – he has a dream job, a great place to live, and a gorgeous and big-hearted girlfriend – and he is too caught up in himself to be aware of it. So when God comes, he’s more about self-realization and Bruce reaching his full potential than he is about a middle finger.
To be sure, this is a concept you’ve already seen a million times in the past, in some form or other. Bruce Almighty’s application of it isn’t even particularly novel. The message of how you don’t need divine powers to make a difference is spelled out pretty much word for word, and by Morgan Freeman! The novel thing about Bruce Almighty is that it takes a standard formula and adds the brilliant comedic stylings of Jim Carrey, and that makes Bruce Almighty much better than it has any right to be. If you get your hands on the DVD version, you can get a good laugh at the added sets of outtakes and the many different ways Carrey improvised some of the funniest scenes in the movie. (I can’t say I envy the poor editor who had to take the best takes of those scenes and weave them into something cohesive. It’s Jim Carrey, which means a LOT of perfectly good takes had to be cut.) As Carrey did with so much of his earlier work, he adds his brand of rubber flair liberally throughout the movie, and so the scenes that are intentionally going for the laughs remain legitimately funny for a long time past the sell date, and more serious scenes give Bruce a characteristic levity that makes them a bit more heartfelt. Bruce parts tomato soup, brings the moon closer to Earth, and steals his dream job in scenes that would have been forgettable in the hands of most other actors.
Of course, God eventually shows up again and asks how many people Bruce managed to HELP with his newfound unlimited power. Bruce, who had ranted about how the Big Man could solve all the world’s problems in seconds if he could ever be bothered to get off his holy heiney, managed to miss that part. Yeah, it should be pretty easy to figure out, in a general sense, the twists and turns Bruce Almighty took to get to that point. Bruce was caught up in himself a little bit before, but the Power of God turned him into a full-blown narcissist, and he proceeds to ruin everything that was ever good about his life. He blows it with his girlfriend when what she think will be his proposal turns out to be his happiness getting the anchor job, the anchor job turns into a chore because all the things he wrecked and people he ruined to get it started backfiring, and he LEARNS that he can get everything back and Make a Difference by ditching the divine powers and getting his hands dirty.
It’s around that point when Bruce Almighty starts to lose its steam. Movies with messages like this are notorious for falling into schmaltz, and Bruce Almighty doesn’t even try to present itself as any kind of exception. It doesn’t carry the tone of the message as heavily either, though, and that’s a good thing. It seems to be that it was the point where the director decided to pull back on his duties and simply let his stars carry the work to its conclusion, so the final act of Bruce Almighty comes across as genuinely heartwarming rather than sappy and melodramatic.
Unbeknownst to all of Jim Carrey’s fans at the time, Bruce Almighty was the final movie in what became the big departure from comedies in his career. While there were more comedies afterward, they rarely featured Carrey’s brand of rubber-faced, limb-flailing, improvised comedy he was so good at. Carrey still came up with great movies – hell, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of the most extraordinary movies of the millennium, came out just a year later – but he didn’t find himself in the pop culture zeitgeist like he did before. It was no longer required to have an opinion about him. A lot of movie people seem to have clear and fond thoughts of Bruce Almighty, so it’s definitely worth checking out. But compared to Carrey’s earlier work, it’s a lot tamer and mushier. This is hardly Ace Ventura, The Mask, The Cable Guy, Dumb and Dumber, or even Batman Forever or Liar Liar. Carrey seems to have figured this out and veered back into darker, more physical characters in the last few years, returning to Dumb and Dumber and playing Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. And whether Carrey think about it or not, there’s a reason why he’s doing those things again.
The Windy Nickel 