I Love You Phillip Morris is one of those films that ought to do well at the box office, but probably won’t simply because it’s awkward to categorise and therefore difficult to market. Indeed, despite starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, as well getting as a positive reception at Sundance in January 2009, it’s taken until now to get the film into UK cinemas (and it still hasn’t come out in the States), largely because while distributors knew it was good, they had difficulty seeing how they’d sell it to an audience. Just head over to Youtube and watch the various trailers, which vary between trying to say it’s a rom-com, zany comedy, big gay movie and drama. The truth is it’s all of these, and more besides.
Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell, who’s been trying to create a sort of American dream life, with a wife, kids and a house in the suburbs. The only hitch being that he likes to have sex with men. After heading to Miami to turn full-time gay, he finds life so expensive that he turns to fraud with a series of madcap schemes, and gets locked up for it. Once behind bars he meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).
The two begin a tender and rather sweet relationship – including a truly touching behind-bars dance – but true love never did run smooth, and in this case turns rather bizarre, as Steven is granted his freedom and therefore separated from Phillip, which launches him on a madcap plan to try and break back into jail again.
Based on a true story (and what seem like the most ridiculous aspects of the story are all real), it’s funny, warm, tragic, zany and very entertaining. The key to its success are a ballsy script from Bad Santa writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who also make their directorial debut here), and some surprisingly good casting.
Although at first glance this might seem like Jim Carrey paying gay in order to get the Oscar he seems to crave, Steven Russell is actually more The Mask than Truman Burbank. Carrey is allowed to let rip in a way he hasn’t for quite a few years, with a character who’s utterly manic and forever trying out insane conman schemes, which delve into the realms of very black comedy. However while the character’s frenetic chutzpah could easily have been annoying (and occasionally it is), the casting of Ewan McGregor as the object of Russell’s affections is an expert move. It means that while Carrey runs around getting the laughs, McGregor holds steady as the film’s emotional anchor.
It’s important that he does, as the film deals with all sorts of ideas about love, desire, need, rejection and the difference between who we want to be and who we are underneath, but all that could have been squashed if there weren’t something to hold Carrey in check.
As mentioned, the film has taken its time getting to the screen, probably because it’s pretty uncompromising in its attitude to homosexuality. While many films with gay themes that want to find a mainstream audience try to hide the sexuality so as not to offend anyone (except for perhaps a peck on the cheek), I Love You Phillip Morris isn’t afraid to say – or show – that Russell likes to have sex with men.
However it doesn’t feel gratuitous, as it’s all mixed up in a complex, funny and sharply written plot, with real emotional heart, and which turns the normal conventions upside-down. Most of Russell’s life is made up of a series of hilarious cons where he’s pretending to be someone he isn’t, or convincing someone that an over-the-top lie he’s telling is the truth. It’s only in the moments where he with other men, and particularly Phillip, that his true being emerges. In most movies being gay is the punchline, but here’s it’s the one thing that isn’t a joke, and as a result an effecting love story emerges.
Admittedly, Ficarra and Requa’s direction isn’t as sure-footed as their script, with occasional pacing problems and a visual aesthetic that’s a bit all over the place.
That said, Carrey is great, it’s McGregor’s best film in ages, and it’s that rare comedy that’s both very funny and leaves you emotionally satisfied, especially when it turns slightly tragic towards the end. Although many might be put off by the gay tag, that’s a real shame, as I Love You Philip Morris is a cut above. If nothing else, it’s great to see a romantic comedy that never dips into cliché.
Overall Verdict: Mad, unusual, ballsy and very funny, I Love You Phillip Morris is well worth seeking out.
Reviewer: Phil Caine
