Alanis Morissette as God? That should tell you where Kevin Smith's head is at with Dogma, his already controversial, satirical inquiry into the mysteries and mythology of the Catholic faith. While the appearance of our girl Alanis is cutesy and ultimately distracting in the film's climactic moments, it should hardly be offensive to anyone but the most cast-iron, gray-faced, conservative Bible thumper.

Same goes for the rest of Smith's metaphysical farce, which follows the adventures of Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), an abortion-clinic worker who's also the last blood relative of Jesus Christ. Bethany is summoned by three angels (Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek and Chris Rock) to find two renegade seraphim (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) intent on reentering Heaven, even if it means the end of all existance.

Rock has the best lines in Smith's script (Fiorentino: "You know Jesus?" Rock: "Know him? Nigga owes me 12 bucks!"), which veers between earnest, if slightly fried, discussion of Church doctrine and juvenile humor, mostly courtesy of Smith's stock characters Jay and Silent Bob. Blessed with good performances all around (except for Affleck's usual "look at me, I'm acting" approach), Smith's ambitious epic is inconsistant, but still deserves applause for the honesty and scope of it's vision.