I Love You Phillip Morris

It's more unique than rare that a film affects me this much. The center, the emotional center of Phillip Morris has entered my subconscious in a way that I can't quite describe. It changed my perception of things. This is the first time I see two men kissing that made complete sense. I believe and understood like never before the "normalness" of the feeling. I liked "Brokeback Mountain" too but in that case, the torturous path of self-loathing that the Heath Ledger character goes trough, kept me at the periphery of the story like a sympathetic, moved spectator. Here I was part of it, of them. I'm sure Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor have a lot to do with it. No cheap shots, no low comedy. They are so true that you can't help loving them and rooting for them, flaws and all. I predict "I Love You Phillip Morris" will become the sleeper of 2009.

I was very lucky to see a screening of this movie just recently, and I honestly though that this would be horrible. I loved Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and Dumb and Dumber, but that's really all about it. However, his latest film makes a mark on easily one of the best films of the decade. It's not the comedy itself that makes it memorable, it's the characters and the story that really makes this film a very enjoyable pleasure.

Loved every minute of it, thoroughly entertaining, actually very funny, and very sincere at the same time. It has a lot of flaws and not much detail, but with the addition the story being true just really does make it a remarkable film in the movie industry, as well as in Jim Carrey and Evan's career. A truly deserving 4 stars.

There's really only one thing you need to ask yourself before you see this movie: are you prepared to see Jim Carrey getting it on with Ewan MacGregor? If so, you should definitely go.

The movie tells the true story—and trust me, you'll have trouble believing it's true—of Steven Russell, a gay man who just can't stop conning his way through life. He uses his extraordinary abilities to gain a variety of jobs, gets indicted for embezzlement, and wins the love of the titular Phillip Morris while the two are fellow inmates in prison.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" was written and directed by Glen Ficarra and John Requa, the same writing team responsible for "Bad Santa". Like "Bad Santa", this movie effectively balances humor and with some very dark themes, though I would say the overall tone is not nearly as bleak as that of the earlier movie.

The writers told the Nashville audience that when choosing material to include from Steve McVicker's nonfiction book, they decided they primarily wanted to tell the love story. They do so very successfully. You might even call this the perfect romantic comedy for people who hate traditional romantic comedies: it's homo- rather than hetero-oriented, it's non-fiction, and it features a somewhat off-kilter con man as the romantic lead. Sounds bizarre, sure, and yet all these elements come together to make a really entertaining movie.

For the most part Jim Carrey loses himself in the character of Steven Russell, delivering an effectively non-hammy (and non-Carrey) comic performance. MacGregor's Phillip Morris is also believably innocent, Southern, and wide-eyed. Nice supporting performances, such as Leslie Mann's as Russell's ex-wife Deb, round out the movie.

Much of the romance takes place in prison, and this creates many beautifully absurd scenes. The movie also has its fair share of sad moments, and contains a pretty clear message about social justice in Texas -- as did the book-- but this is kept mercifully subtle, underlying rather than overshadowing the story.

The directors said they hoped the movie would make spectators laugh, cry and think, and the Nashville audience seemed to do all three. There were a lot of laughs but some definite sniffles at the appropriate moments. At the Q&A, there was a fair amount of interest in the real story, and Ficarra, McVicker, and Requa were happy to oblige with further information.

Come to think of it, you may not have to worry about seeing the two leads have sex. Although the love scenes were kept technically PG, the directors were expecting a fight with the MPAA because of the homosexual content. That's a real pity, but I hope they win.

Surprisingly, I never expected to like this film as much as I have intended, since I viewed this film as a flunk. The film was just well executed, well paced, and not presenting anything unnecessary. The story is pretty interesting and it sticks to what needs to be told. There were never any moment in the film that took a detour, as it stayed on focus on what this film was about; every scene mattered and nothing was put into waste. I do not know how much of this was real or if Russell did everything for a gay lover, but the film does a good job of explaining and depicting the infamous prison escapee and portraying his intelligence. It was actually quite fun to watch as you follow the character falling in love and fooling around him, in order to get the things that he wants.

There are not as much exploitations as you see in "Milk," but do expect at least few gay sex scenes. Despite the exploitations, I really liked how the director didn't overuse scenes that involved the gay couple because it really would have ruined the film for me. Adding these scenes in various parts of the film, really feels like the film wants to be funny by adding potty humor. You will only see less than a few of these scenes, one is quite exploitive, by the way; however, the director didn't focus on adding more of these scenes, only focusing on what needed to be portrayed on the film.

This is categorized as a comedy, but I will say that don't expect for some non-stop laughter. Not everything that you see is laugh out loud funny, but it is comedy that you can watch and actually enjoy without having some non-stop laughter. Personally, the only comedy that I found laughable was watching how Steve Russell, portrayed by Jim Carrey, escapes from prisons numerous of times. The real Steve Russell is known for being the Houdini of prison escaping and you see why he received that nickname. It is very comical to see all of these escape routines that Russell will do and you will see something different in every escape attempt. Each one of his escapes were well-thought, smart, and unique as you see a different escape attempt each time and will never see the same attempt used again.

You have a small cast for this film and I thought everyone was pretty good in their roles. Ewan McGreggor was actually good as I never expected him to even consider to portray a character in this type of film; he is not a bad actor and was good as Russell's gay lover. Now, the person who did steal the show was Jim Carrey. This is not the Jim Carrey that you have seen in his 90's comedy flicks, but this is Jim Carrey acting and using his talent that made him famous, to portray the character. You'll see that Russell is a smart character and have succeed in multiple prison escapes and Carrey was great as the role. I thought to myself that Jim Carrey was near perfect for this film because of the characteristics of his character. You have to have a character that is capable of fooling people by being able to do countless of voices, impersonations, and doing the impossible, in order to escape; what better actor than Carrey to take on this role..

This film is definitely not in the same level of funny as you see in "The Hangover," but watching these numerous escape routines and watching Russell fooling the people around him brings in some humor. A good cast , great performance by Carrey, a decent storyline that was executed quite well, and a smart character that was able to escape countless of times, made this film surprisingly enjoyable.

Continuing my MIFF reviews, I saw this last week with a packed house at Greater Union.

Firstly, it has to be said that it's a tragedy that this film's general release has been such a stifled process. The entertainment value of this picture, its expert construction and superb performances cannot be denied.

Carrey turns in what is possibly his best performance in a decade. It's bizarre, the way that his signature antics actually enhance rather than diminish the dramatic aspects of this film, based loosely on real life events. In fact, for me, the movie trumps The Truman Show as Carrey's true coming of age as a performer of depth. Ewan McGregor is equally astonishing as Phillip Morris - you'd swear you were watching the kind of unique romantic chemistry between two actors that arrives very rarely in cinema, and virtually never between two A-listers playing gay lovers; but the love story is only a foundation for what emerges as a kinetic, superbly told comedy-drama about the real life exploits of con man and recidivist prison escapee Steven Jay Russell.

Directors/writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa expertly handle the tensions of comic and dramatic performance and also prove to have a masterly touch with the frenzied action sequences. Bit parts are cast beautifully. You can see the attention to detail and craft in this movie.

It can only be assumed that the gay context of this film has cost it it's commercial potential in the eyes of distributors, because everything else about it spells box office success. Apparently, it will finally have a limited release in the US in October this year, with the potential of expansion.

Without spoiling any of the twists of the film's detailed series of events, the film succeeds at beautifully hijacking audience expectation time and again. Just when you think you've got the film pinned for being predictable, suddenly it flips on you with a wry smile as if to say, "I knew what you were thinking".

I'm not sure how close the producers stuck to the facts, but it scarcely matters. If 5% of this narrative is true, it would be amazing in itself. I would be happy if the film was complete fiction.

It's a wonderful, assured comedy and deserves wide commercial exploitation.