Blogorium Review: I Love You, Phillip Morris

As I Love You, Phillip Morris is finally opening in theatres (albeit limited release), I was planning on re-posting my original review today... then I realized I never wrote one. I could have sworn that in addition to reviewing Leaves of Grass several months early, I had also covered this based-on-a-true-story Jim Carrey / Ewan MacGregor film, but for the life of me I can't find it. So no apologies for repeating myself; instead you get a fresh review, just in time to see the movie (in select markets).

Jim Carrey is Steven Russell, a seemingly run-of-the-mill, Bible quoting, Jesus loving American working for the Virginia Beach police force. What his wife Debbie (Leslie Mann) doesn't know is that Russell is a just barely closeted homosexual, and after a traffic accident nearly kills him, he abandons her and movies to Miami, determined to live his life out and proud. The problem for Russell is that he can't afford the lifestyle, so he resorts to conning his way into large cash settlements with bogus injuries, stolen credit cards, and assumed identities. This does, as one would imagine it would, eventually land Steven in jail.

While in prison in Houston, Russell meets and falls in love with Phillip Morris (Ewan MacGregor), and the two use the prison system to circumvent rules and eventually room together, all of which is fine until Morris is transferred, leaving Russell alone. Steven Russell puts his con artist skills into use and in order to reunite with Morris, he goes to great lengths (including posing as a doctor to escape, pretending to be a judge ordering his own release, and ultimately Morris' attorney) and the couple is ultimately free to live together in the outside world.

Providing the "perfect" life for the both of them becomes Russell's mission, and I don't need to tell you it's a true story to figure out where things go. What I am opting not to tell you is a fairly major plot point in I Love You, Phillip Morris because it would alter the way you watch the film from its outset. Normally, with true stories, I tend to defer to the facts and assume that if you wanted to look up Steven Jay Russell, you would, but it's actually better not to for I Love You, Phillip Morris. In this case, what you don't know going in will help with a clever plot conceit built around Carrey's narration at the beginning of the film.

What I will say is that it's nice to see Jim Carrey and Ewan MacGregor in a film that plays to their strengths again. Carrey is vulnerable, goofy, and just a tad devious as Steven Russell, and Ewan MacGregor gives Phillip Morris a pure, grounded, kindness that could be lost if the film drifted too far into strictly comedic territory. Writer(s)/ Director(s) Glen Ficarra and John Requa find a tone in I Love You, Phillip Morris that's somewhere between Frank Capra's filmography and Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, and while the offbeat love story takes a moment to adjust to, I enjoyed the film a great deal the first time I saw it.

So there you have it; my very late yet seemingly quite timely review of I Love You, Phillip Morris, a film that hasn't had much press to my knowledge. Like Leaves of Grass, I'm not sure that it's going to appeal to everybody (and it's certainly going to ruffle some feathers with homophobic audiences expecting a "typical Jim Carrey" movie) but I Love You, Phillip Morris is worth checking out if you live in any of the cities that qualify as "limited release," and absolutely worth renting if you can't see it in theatres.