I don’t usually read the works of other critics before seeing a film, but there was so much to read that I couldn’t avoid the press on Evan Almighty completely. My local paper and the reviews that I read in USA Today were brutal: they questioned the plot, the point and the humor of the movie, and argued against the performance of Steve Carell himself. As I left the theater on Saturday night, I asked my wife the one burning question I had left, “Did they see the same movie we did?”

For those who haven’t read Chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis from the Hebrew (and Christian) Old Testament, the movie will not be as funny as it would be if you read that chapter first. With Eve Adams as the newly-minted congressman’s real estate agent, the number of the tree company referring to gopher wood, and Carell’s “Noah” (who is building an ark) with a wife named Joan, it’s hard to miss the religious humor behind the movie’s plotlines. But the physical humor of Carrell, and the expressions on his face, should certainly have entertained a critic who was less-focused on faith. It’s not Forty-Year Old Virgin, but it was never meant to me. My goodness, it’s PG, and aimed at good old family fun, so don’t expect a cussing raunch-fest!

From a theological perspective, the story of one man’s (and one family’s) redemption should prove to be a modern day parable. I was entranced by the discussion of prayer that Joan and Evan have one night that leads to everything that follows. She recounts what the different sons have prayed for and how she joined in herself. While he is skeptical, we also see him as obsessed with work, failing to uphold his word and blind to the opportunities that he has in his own life to change the world. That might not be remarkable, except for the fact that his platform for running for office is “Change the World!” What follows that discussion is a prayer that changes Evan’s life, and the life of his family and community. It’s a powerful prayer, that he can’t begin to understand for himself.

So, God himself, or at least God as played by Morgan Freeman, shows up to help clarify the situation for Evan/Noah. The best moments of the movie invariably include Freeman, not just because he’s playing God, but because he brings the kind of gravitas that audiences have come to expect. His conversation with Joan in a diner is both humorous and clever, and again, concerns prayer. If people pray for patience, does God grant them a zap of patience, he asks Joan, or does God provide them with an opportunity to show patience? When people pray that their family will grow closer, does God surround them with a warm fuzzy feeling or does he provide them with an opportunity where they can be strengthened and bonded closely together? Ah, says the audience, we are learning about prayer!

But don’t expect the movie to be simply a preachy, Sunday School-variety God video. Carell shrugs off profanity with cleverly placed “Sheep!” or “mother of Peter, Paul and Mary,” yet remains the barely contained, subtly-comedic anti-Jim Carrey. If nothing else, the movie shows that the premise works with the exact opposite star from where it started, and it’s still funny. I was truly impressed in how funny it was, from Carell to the animals and the work of Evan’s team of worker bees. (The only thing unfunny to me about the movie was newly-minted straight man, John Goodman. If he was supposed to be funny, I missed it!)

With everything else, it’s easy to miss the CGI included in the movie’s wide breadth, and the use of real animals as well. You might forget, if you’ve heard the story of Noah and the Flood more times than you can count, that the Ark is huge, but the movie allows you to see what it might have been like. The movie is truly a modern-day parable, with the whiz-bangs thrown in for good measure.

Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty can both be your favorites—they share faith issues and have similar names, but the delivery and style define them differently. Both include discovering faith and understanding prayer, but the scale of Evan’s impact is broader than just his own soul. Did I mention, that everyone who needs to is allowed on the ark? Maybe we didn’t understand the parts about mercy and grace, but this Almighty certainly gets it.