I Love You, Phillip Morris (2009) Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Starring: Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. IMDB says: “Incarcerated at the state penitentiary, con artist Steven Russell (Carrey) meets the love of his life: Phillip Morris (McGregor). As a free man, his passion results in a series of improbable cons to bust Phillip from jail and build the perfect life together.”
Two people fall in love. A conflict of some sort tears them apart. But then an emotionally charged event brings them back together and they spend the rest of their lives together, and in love. We’ve seen Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan follow this storyline a couple times and with all of the Nicholas Sparks novel adaptations, we’re bound to see more. Such is the life of a romantic comedy. They’re slightly funny, mostly cliché, and are always between a man and a woman. If you expect to see this going to see I Love You Phillip Morris you will be disappointed.
I Love You Philip Morris is unforgiving, utterly hilarious, and, for lack of a better term, gay. It’s the unbelievably true story of Steven Russell (Jim Carrey). A man who lives a happy life in Viriginia Beach as a policeman married to Debbie (Leslie Mann). One night, a car accident makes him realize something; he’s gay. So he completely turns his life around moves to Florida and begins his new life as a proud gay man. But to pay for his lavish livings, he becomes a con man, and yep, he gets caught and arrested. It’s in prison where he meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) and falls in love and decides that he’s going to spend the rest of his life with him, no matter what.
From start to finish Jim Carrey owns the screen. He’s funny, complex, and heartfelt all at once. Never overshadowing his cast mates, he feeds off their energy to bring you easily his best comedic performance since Dumb and Dumber. Its exciting to see that Carrey still has it and that hopefully he brings more of it to his future roles. The film has been plagued by distribution problems and will only get a limited release. If you aren’t fortunate enough to see it in theatres, definitely rent it when it comes out, snuggle up with the one you love and be prepared to laugh, and laugh hard.
