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I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS (2010) (***1/2)

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When Steven Russell meets Phillip Morris in prison he catches a terminal cancer called love. He is consumed with giving Phillip the world. To do so he pays off guards, poses as a lawyer to get Phillip released early and scams millions out of a health care company in order to fund their lavish lifestyle. Oh what a guy won't do for love.

Jim Carrey plays Steve Russell, who at the start of the film is a married cop who plays the organ at church every week, which he attends with his June Cleaver wife Debbie (Leslie Mann, KNOCKED UP). As a child, he was adopted through some not so legal means. He uses his access at work to locate his real mother to find out why she sold him. After that doesn't work out too well, he moves his family away. Following a car accident, he declares that he has been living a lie and boldly comes out as gay.

So he moves to Miami where he gets a pretty young boyfriend named Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro, 300). Wanting to live a luxurious lifestyle, he begins all kinds of scams. He eventually gets caught and ends up in jail where he meet the vulnerable Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor (MOULIN ROUGE!). Steven says he's a lawyer and wants to protect Phillip, using all kinds of bribes to get special privileges. After Steven is released, he poses as Phillip's lawyer and gets him an early release. Steven then goes right back into scamming, this time talking his way into becoming the CFO for a company, where he embezzles millions from them.

Astonishingly the film is based on a true tale. Part of the fun is watching Steven devise his elaborate scams to make money or break out of jail. They don't always work, but he never stops trying. His plots are so audacious that he embarrasses authorities. In many ways it reminded me of Frank Abagnale Jr., whose real-life scams were brought to the screen by Leonardo DiCaprio in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.

Directors/writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.) plays the material broadly. Even though many of the punch lines are simply "gay sex act" Jim Carrey's full-steam-ahead performance makes it all funny. Ironically Steven lives a false life as a straight man and simply leaves that life to live another false life. Despite all the lies Carrey sells the idea that Steven truly does love Phillip, but after living a simple life for so long he has become drunk on the fabulous world. McGregor gives Phillip such vulnerability that we understand why he loves the protection Steven gives him, but fear his devastation when the lies finally get the best of him.

At the end, the question is who is Steven Russell? The shock of being adopted seems to have put the question in his mind at a young age. When he invents new personas, he delves into them completely. He truly becomes that person. Some have questioned if his "love" for Phillip is real or just another persona. I think the fact that getting and keeping Phillip in his life from the moment they met lasts across multiple schemes says a lot about his true feelings. Just ask his wife how easy the people of an old persona can be dumped.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks