To tell the truth, this is an unfortunate wasted opportunity. A shame, because there were themes here that I really believe in exploring: wry and witty (at times) comments on religion/faith and indictments of the wholly dishonest and shallow ways we all tend to go about living our lives on a daily basis. The concept should have been an inspired intellectual take on a kind of lame brainless genre, the broad magical/divine comedy in the vein of Jim Carrey's 'Liar, Liar', 'Yes Man' or 'Bruce Almighty', but it just never reaches it's potential.

I so genuinely want Ricky Gervais to succeed on film, but I'm afraid that his style of hilarity may just be too subtle to register up on the big screen. I have always loved Jennifer Garner and she shows here that she is no doubt a great comedienne. However, I would much rather watch her kick ass than make me laugh. Tina Fey brought nothing to her single scene role, for which she is given one of the top billing spots, and like several other cameos by big name actors, they really only end up as pointless distractions.

And speaking of distractions, anytime I notice heavy handed product placement in a film, my enjoyment of the film immediately goes down several notches, regardless of the rest of the films content. And aside from one product placement which actually was the basis for my favorite comedy bit in the film regarding truth in advertising, this film is otherwise shameless in this regard.

It's not that the film wasn't funny. It just wasn't funny enough.