I Love You Phillip Morris (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)

[McCrutchy]

I Love You Phillip Morris Blu-ray

As yet unreleased and facing distribution difficulties in the USA, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's comedy-drama I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) is set to be released in the UK on 12 July 2010. Courtesy of E1 Entertainment.

The Times (19 March 2010):

Jim Carrey’s latest film opens with an announcement: “This really happened,” and then, anticipating your incredulity, adds, “It really did.”

How likely is it that a Christian policeman would come out of the closet and end up in a cell with the love of his life, escaping from jail four times along the way? But I Love You, Phillip Morris is also the biography of Steven Russell, an ingenious white-collar con artist who might have stayed gloriously on the lam were it not for his grand amour for his fellow prisoner Morris. It’s The Shawshank Redemption in tight trousers.

Jim Carrey is superb in his mercurial, droll, loose-limbed portrayal of Russell. Carrey has played many wild-eyed fantasists in his time, but he surpasses himself as “the con man who wouldn’t go straight”. He may also surprise his traditional fan base, though Russell, too, is a man of many disguises.

The film races through gags showing Russell growing up in suburban Texas. When he discovers that he is adopted, he turns to goodness and God, becoming a singing, smiling police officer, happily married to blonde Debbie. At night they pray together: “If it wasn’t for you, Jesus, I wouldn’t have found that last coffee filter . . .” Debbie says. When his adopted mother refuses to acknowledge him, he storms off with her “Welcome” doormat, “because it’s a lie!” Then we see the perfect husband with another man: “Did I forget to mention I’m gay?” asks the voiceover.

Even the car accident that is Russell’s epiphany — when he decides to be straight about being gay — is funny. “I’m going to be a fag. A big fag!” he announces cheerily from the blood-soaked stretcher.

Glenn Ficcara and John Requa, the directors and writers, keep up the manic plot by taking us off to the Florida coast, where Russell and his new boyfriend live, “high on the gay hog” in incredible style, shown with lush cinematography. “Nobody tells you this, but being gay is really expensive,” Russell sighs as he buys Rolex watches with a fraudulent credit card. Soon he is in handcuffs instead of the Rolex, in the notoriously brutal Texas prison system.

Smooth operator that he is, Russell soon has the prison system sussed. Advising inmates from the law library, he meets blond-haired, blue-eyed Phillip Morris and utterly falls for him. There is a touching scene in which the two men slow-dance together while a pitched prison battle roars unnoticed outside.

But here’s the problem. Morris is played by Ewan McGregor, and, try as he might, there is just something wrong about casting him as this gentle, sweet-natured, Southern gentleman. Carrey is convincingly homosexual, but McGregor just doesn’t seem comfortable in this role, and his accent slips from Southern to Scottish.

I happened to discuss this role with McGregor during a separate interview for The Ghost, out next month. “Being gay is just part of what you’re playing,” he said. “It doesn’t become the character’s entire identity. I spent a couple of days with Phillip, and his sexuality was more ultra male, not a female thing, but still quite camp.” Unfortunately, that’s not what comes across to the audience.

After Russell gets Morris out of prison, they set up home together in a cool loft, and Russell blags his way into a job as the chief financial officer of a Texas company. Russell cooks the company books to buy matching red Mercedes convertibles with the licence plates “Phillip” and “Steven”.

Soon Russell is back in prison, dressing up in a wide variety of costumes, including fishnet tights and red hotpants, to escape back to the arms of his true love. Meanwhile Morris is understandably miffed that his boyfriend cannot face reality. The ending slides from comedy to tragedy, with one last ingenious twist.

Significantly, despite Carrey’s box-office appeal, this film is not yet out in America. Phillip Morris has only recently found a “limited distribution” deal, despite rave reviews at Sundance more than a year ago. It deserves better. The film has flaws, but its sheer exuberance deserves viewing.