What would you do if you had God’s power for one week? Bruce Nolan discovers what it’s like to have God’s power and responsibility in Bruce Almighty.

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a field reporter for a local news station in Buffalo, New York, when he finds that his life is not playing out as he would like it. Everything seems to be going wrong for Bruce: he doesn’t get the desk anchor job at the station, his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) is unhappy because he hasn’t proposed to her nor paid enough attention to her, he is constantly late for work and his dog incessantly urinates on his furniture and other belongings.

He criticizes God for not putting a stop to his misfortune even though He has the power to do so, and in a rage, contends that he could do a better job if he had God’s power.

God (Morgan Freeman) accepts Bruce’s challenge and gives Bruce His power and responsibility while He takes a vacation. Bruce uses the power only to his own benefit and cannot keep up with the responsibility of answering prayers.

When confronted by God a week later, Bruce discovers that he must use his power to help others rather than himself.
Eventually, Bruce returns everything to how it was before, gets the girl and is happy being a field reporter.

This movie makes an effort at showing what it would be like if man had God’s power and responsibility.

It does a good job at showing the effects a selfish decision can have even when the one making the decision never intends the effects that do result to come about, and in doing so, challenges the viewer to consider more carefully the possible results when making a decision.

The movie did not, however, examine fully God’s power because God’s power is accepted as infinite, and Bruce did not have infinite power. The movie also played down God because God was seemingly aloof from everyone else, sort of like a loner.

Other than that, Bruce Almighty did a good job of showing why God is God and why man should not be trusted with God’s power.