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By god, he's back!

Let the rejoicing begin: Jim Carrey returns to form in the wonderfully silly and smartly done Bruce Almighty.

Let us bow our heads and give thanks that Jim Carrey decided to be funny again. The Grinch stole more than Christmas three years ago. He also took Carrey's license to laughter, burying his best attributes - his limber face and ad-lib dexterity - under pounds of latex makeup and a weak script. We won't even discuss The Majestic, a shamelessly last-ditch effort by Carrey to be regarded as a serious dramatic actor.

He can be, but audiences don't want to see him that way. Not yet, at least.

Bruce Almighty is a terrific return to form for Carrey, a chance to unleash all those pent-up comedic impulses. All it took to make the funniest man in movies wish to be that way again was a little help from up above.

Carrey gets to play an honest-to-goodness god in Bruce Almighty, complete with lightning, locusts and parting his tomato soup like Moses did the Red Sea. He's a vengeful, selfish god, and no other comedian can express those feelings with such conspiratorial joy. Carrey never breaks down the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera, yet viewers always know that he knows we're out there. He plays to the rafters around supporting characters who barely reach the orchestra pit. Each exaggerated mannerism and goofy vocal pitch is just for us.

But gods sometimes retreat to Earth, and that's where Bruce Almighty finds its place among memorable comic fantasies like Heaven Can Wait, Groundhog Day and Defending Your Life. There is something inherently appealing about blending theology and pratfalls. Most comedies deal with earthbound realities resulting in the same old punch lines. Joking about what humans can't completely understand, like omnipotence, allows the jokes the freedom to go anywhere.

Bruce isn't a god all the time. He's self-centered Bruce Nolan, one of those happy-talk TV correspondents covering stories like the largest cookie ever baked in Buffalo. He covets the evening news anchor chair but won't earn it with that fluff. The boss (Philip Baker Hall) likes Bruce, but a smarmy colleague (Steven Carell, The Daily Show) has the inside track. Everything from traffic to the elements works against Bruce, leaving him with a grudge against God.

We can see Bruce has a more wonderful life than he realizes. His job could be fun and he gets to come home to Jennifer Aniston every night. She plays his girlfriend with the prescient name Grace, a chance for Bruce to redeem himself after his life takes a divine downturn.

God decides to bestow his powers upon Bruce for a while, to see if he can do a better job. At first, it's a selfish hoot, with a new sports car, a revitalized career and larger breasts for Grace. But those voices ringing in his ears, prayers from people in need, are getting louder, demanding attention. When he converts them to e-mails, answering "yes" to everyone's prayers, all hell breaks loose. Did you ever consider what could happen if every lottery player's dream came true? Some have to win, some have to lose, and there's this messy thing called free will constantly getting in the way.

The screenplay by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk glides over these theological issues, thanks in part to Morgan Freeman's royally entertaining performance as the Almighty. His rich voice makes the life lessons awaiting Bruce much easier to swallow. Freeman's humor is the antithesis of Carrey's; the jokes lie in his somber delivery and a keen comic timing he doesn't often get to use. George Burns now has competition in "favorite movie deity of all time" category.

Divine intervention comes in the midst of Bruce's power trip. Carrey gets a chance, after roping us in with his singularly wacky style, to display the acting chops nobody paid to see in The Majestic. The laughs don't disappear, but they're muted by Bruce's growing despair. A few times in the final act I found myself marveling at the film's smooth adjustment from comedy star vehicle to minor dramatic showcase. Carrey is ready for the challenge, lifting Bruce Almighty - and his estimation in my eyes - to another level.

Director Tom Shadyac is coming along with him. The pair combined for Carrey's breakout hit, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and his previously best leading man role in Liar, Liar. (We won't hold Patch Adams and Dragonfly against Shadyac.) This outing reveals a filmmaker expanding his visual punctuations to his star's humor, with pans and zooms or a hilarious sequence of sight gags when Bruce organizes his prayer list. The humor in Bruce Almighty isn't due only to Carrey or the screenplay, but also to a director and his editor, Scott Hill, knowing when to punch up the gags.

Bruce Almighty is a feel-good movie for more reasons that its hero's salvation. It's a nice medium between the crude recklessness of teen comedies and the sterile sitcom mentality some older moviegoers prefer. The religious themes are treated with the devout irreverence of a cool Sunday school teacher. Even a monkey divinely willed out of a ruffian's posterior doesn't seem offensive, yet a predictably happy ending rarely seems so fresh. This is smart-silly comedy. These days, that's a miracle.

Grade: A

Director: Tom Shadyac

Cast: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Steven Carell, Philip Baker Hall, Lisa Ann Walter

Screenplay: Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, Steve Oedekerk

Rating: PG-13; sexual situations, crude humor, profanity, drug references

Running time: 98 min.