This film about a God fearing ex-cop turned gay conman is full of surprises and lots of laughs with Jim Carrey giving one of his best performances.
I just love it when you see a film you have absolutely no clue about and it turns out to be the funniest and most entertaining film so far this year. I Love You Phillip Morris is apparently based on a true story (or so we are told in the opening credits ) about a rather ingenious, and slightly crazy, conman who downright refuses to go straight, no really, straight is definitely not in this guy’s vocabulary. However, planning jail breaks and chasing the love of his life, his cell-mate, are.
The film begins with Steven Russell (Jim Carrey ) on a hospital death-bed comtemplating the ups and downs in his life. We are brought back to the beginning, to a time when Russell was seemingly happily married to Debbie (Leslie Mann ) and was a member of the local police force. The cracks begin to show when he tracks down his biological mother but is cruelly rejected and then miraculously survives a car crash. Immediately following his near death experience Russell comes out of the closet and begins his new life as a gay man, however, after realising how expensive it is to fund his lavish lifestyle and please his hot boyfriend Russell undertakes various cons which leads to a prison term.
Russell soon finds his feet establishing all kinds of connections which come in handy when he meets and falls for fellow inmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor ) who is a soft-spoken, timid, look-after-me type of guy. Their relationship blossoms and Russell will stop at nothing to ensure that they stay together, attempting and often succeeding in one impossible con after the other.
Carey is absolutely amazing in this role and is so convincing that you completely forget that he is straight. His background in physical comedy, although subdued, also lends a helping hand in creating some dark but hilarious scenes. McGregor on the other hand was less convincing but you have still got to give him credit for giving this role a go. In fact, it is exactly the directors’ (Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ) risk taking and not giving a damn about boundaries attitude that makes this film so brilliant.
Verdict: 5/5
