Bruce Almighty

Bruce Nolan is a television field reporter for Eyewitness News on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, who usually covers mundane news stories (such as Buffalo bakers baking the largest cookie in history), but desires to be the station's anchorman. When Bruce's coveted job is taken by his rival, Evan Baxter, a vulgar on-camera outburst leads to his dismissal from the station. After a series of misfortunes, Bruce complains to God that "He's the one that should be fired". Bruce receives a message on his pager, which takes him to an empty warehouse where he meets God. God offers to give Bruce his powers for a week, under two conditions - Bruce cannot tell others he's God (in order to avoid the media attention), nor can he use the powers to alter free will.

Bruce at first uses his powers for personal gains, such as getting his job back, exacting revenge on a street gang that bullied him earlier, and impressing his girlfriend, Grace Connelly. He also causes miraculous events to occur at otherwise mundane events that he covers, such as discovering Jimmy Hoffa's body during a segment on police training, or causing a meteor to harmlessly land near a cook-off, earning him the nickname "Mr. Exclusive". Bruce also causes Evan to embarrass himself on-air, consequently getting Evan fired and Bruce becomes the new anchor. Bruce, however, also starts hearing voices in his head and re-encounters God, who explains the voices are prayers that Bruce must deal with. Bruce creates a computerized email-like system to handle the prayers but finds that the influx is far too many for him to handle, and thus sets the program to answer every prayer Yes automatically.

During a party celebrating Bruce's promotion, Grace finds Bruce kissing his co-anchor Susan Ortega (whom forcefully comes on to him) and quickly leaves. Bruce tries following her and then using his powers to convince her to stay but cannot influence her free will. Bruce later discovers that Buffalo has fallen into chaos due to his actions: parts of the city believe the Apocalypse is nearly upon Earth due to the meteor strikes, while a large number of people, all having prayed to win the multi-million dollar lottery and received only seventeen dollars in return, have started rioting in the streets. Bruce returns to God, learning he cannot solve all the problems and so must figure a way out on his own. Bruce thus starts helping others without divine powers, including giving Evan his job back. As he returns to his computer at home and goes about answering prayers, he finds one from Grace, wishing for his success and well-being. Another prayer from Grace immediately arrives, this one wishing not to be in love with him anymore, to avoid further pain.

Finally realizing his selfishness, Bruce walks alone on a highway, asking God to take back his powers and leaving his fate in His hands. Bruce is suddenly hit by a truck and meets God in the afterlife. When He asks Bruce what he really wants; Bruce admits that he only wants to make sure Grace finds a man that would make her happy. God agrees, and Bruce is ressurected and taken to the hospital, where his doctors help him recover. Grace finally arrives at the hospital and rekindles her relationship with Bruce. Following his recovery, Bruce returns to his field reporting, but decides to take more pleasure in the simple stories.

• Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan
• Jennifer Aniston as Grace Connelly, Bruce's girlfriend
• Morgan Freeman as God
• Catherine Bell as Susan Ortega, Bruce's co-anchor
• Steve Carell (credited as Steven Carell) as Evan Baxter, Bruce's rival
• Lou Felder as Pete Fineman, Eyewitness News veteran anchorman
• Philip Baker Hall as Jack Baylor
• Lisa Ann Walter as Debbie Connelly, Grace's sister
• Paul Satterfield as Dallas Coleman
• Nora Dunn as Ally Loman
• Eddie Jemison as Bobby
• Sally Kirkland as Anita Mann
• Micah Stephen Williams as boy on bike
• Tony Bennett as himself
• Carlos Sánchez as Juan Valdez
• John Murphy as himself
• Madeline Lovejoy as Zoe
• Noel Gugliemi as Hector
• Annie Wersching as woman at party

The Shoin building at the Japanese Garden in Los Angeles was used as the spa.

In June 2000, it was announced that Universal had paid over $1 million for a spec script titled Bruce Almighty[7] with the intention of positioning the script as a directing vehicle for Tom Shadyac via his Universal based production company Shady Acres.[7] Jim Carrey signed on to star in March 2002 with Steve Oedekerk rewriting the script.[8] Previously, Carrey had been slated to star in another comedy for Universal titled 'Dog Years' to be directed by Gary Ross, but following that film's cancellation, Universal were eager to get Carrey onto another project.[8]

Filming of Buffalo was done in the "New York Street" at Universal Studios Hollywood. The restaurant with Tony Bennett was filmed at Cicada, in the James Oviatt Building, downtown Los Angeles.[9] The spa scene with Jennifer Aniston was filmed in the Shoin building at The Japanese Garden in Los Angeles.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[27]

The soundtrack was released on June 3, 2003, by Varèse Sarabande. Tracks 8-13 are from the score composed by John Debney, performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony (conducted by Pete Anthony) with Brad Dechter and Sandy De Crescent.

Track listing

1. "One of Us" - Joan Osborne
2. "God Shaped Hole" - Plumb
3. "You're a God" - Vertical Horizon
4. "The Power" - Snap!
5. "A Little Less Conversation" - Elvis vs. JXL
6. "The Rockafeller Skank" - Fatboy Slim
7. "God Gave Me Everything" - Mick Jagger featuring Lenny Kravitz
8. "AB Positive"
9. "Walking on Water"
10. "Seventh at Seven"
11. "Bruce Meets God"
12. "Bruce's Prayer"
13. "Grace's Prayer"

• Arai En 305-il Kadavul, a Tamil-language remake
• God Tussi Great Ho, an Indian remake
• The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, a spin-off documentary television series starring Morgan Freeman

Wikiquote has quotations related to Bruce Almighty.

• Official website
• Bruce Almighty at IMDb
• Bruce Almighty at AllMovie