movie review i love you phillip morris

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If you wanted to make a movie about the life of Steven Russell, you might start with this question: Could we get Jim Carrey ? You would need an actor who can seem both instantly lovable and always up to no good. That "I Love You, Phillip Morris” is based on a true story is relevant only because it is too preposterous to be fiction. Russell is a con man, and his lifelong con is selling himself to himself.

That process begins when he discovers he isn't who he thought he was. His parents tell him he is adopted. My notion is that if you love your parents, and they tell you you're adopted, you'd love them even more. It doesn't work that way for Steven Russell. Once that rug has been pulled from beneath his feet, he sets about creating a new reality for himself. He becomes a police officer. He marries Debbie ( Leslie Mann ), as wholesome as a toothpaste model. They have two children. He plays the church organ. He is a poster boy for truth, justice and the American way.

Continuing to seek truth, he discovers the identity of his birth mother. Shall we say she is a disappointment. After a traumatic accident, he has time in the hospital to reflect that his entire life has been constructed out of other people's spare parts. Who is he really? He decides he is gay. Not only gay but flamboyantly, stereotypically gay, and soon living with a Latin lover ( Rodrigo Santoro ) on Miami's South Beach. He begins to pass checks and fraudulently use credit cards to finance their heady lifestyle.

Now when I wrote "he decides he is gay,” did some of you think you don't "decide” to be gay — you simply are, or are not? I believe that's the case almost all the time. I'm not completely sure about Steven Russell. The movie reveals him as an invention, an improvisation, constantly in rehearsal to mislead the world because he has a need to deceive. Who could be less like a church-going cop and family man than a South Beach playboy? Does he like gay sex? Yes, and very energetically, indeed. Does he like straight sex? You bet he does. He can sell himself on anything. I think gay sex is the easier sell here.

The method of "I Love You, Phillip Morris” provides great quantities of plot and then holds them at arm's length. It isn't really about plot. Plots are scenarios that characters are involved in. Steven Russell improvises his own scenario, so that most of what happens is his own handiwork in one way or another. Carrey makes the role seem effortless; he deceives as spontaneously as others breathe.

The authorities have a supporting role. He keeps breaking the law, and they keep arresting him. After he's imprisoned for theft and fraud, life changes when he's assigned a new cellmate: Phillip Morris (a blond Ewan McGregor as we've never seen him before). He falls in love. Or perhaps, as the song has it, he falls in love with love. After he's released, he creates a new persona, a lawyer, and floats this deception with a single shred of proof to pull off a stunt that gets Phillip out of prison. McGregor rises to this occasion like a dazzled ingenue.

Phillip is in love with Steven; that's not in doubt. But he is slow to understand the depth and complexity of Steven's fabrications. He's a sweet, naive kid with a Southern accent and not the brightest bulb on the tree. He's a bystander as Steven steals a fortune from a health-care organization that has possibly never even employed him. Steven is soon back behind bars, and the movie unfolds into a series of increasingly audacious and labyrinthine confidence schemes.

All of this, as I said, is based on Russell's own story, as written by Steve McVicker of the Houston Press. Russell impersonated doctors, lawyers, FBI agents and the CFO of a health-care company. He convinced prison officials he had died of AIDS and later successfully faked a heart attack. He escaped from jail four times (hint: always on a Friday the 13th). He is now serving 144 years in Texas in maximum security and solitary confinement, which seems a bit much for a man who never killed anyone and stole a lot less money than the officers of Enron.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)

Rated R for strong sexual content, profanity and mild violence

Ewan McGregor as Phillip Morris

Michael Mandel as Cleavon

Rodrigo Santoro as Jimmy

Jim Carrey as Steven Russell

Leslie Mann as Debbie

Written and directed by

Glenn Ficarra

Based on the book by

Steve McVicker

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Movie Review | 'I Love You Phillip Morris'

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By Stephen Holden

Dec. 2, 2010

Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Steven Russell, a notorious real-life con man now serving a 144-year sentence in a Texas prison, hot-wires “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a nervy comedy that bills itself as an “improbable but true story.”

That description in the movie’s production notes applies not only to Mr. Russell’s amazing adventures in fraud, deception, multiple impersonation and prison escape, but it also distills the gleefully blasé attitude of a movie that despite explanatory titles doesn’t bother to make you believe that any of it is true. Mirroring Mr. Russell’s fantastic criminal antics, its abnegation of persnickety realism to track its own zany-sentimental orbit is one of its charms.

Written and directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (“Bad Santa”), who adapted their screenplay from a book by Steve McVicker, a former investigative reporter for The Houston Chronicle, “I Love You Phillip Morris” plays like a goofy social satire. Aping Mr. Russell’s devil-may-care high jinks, it takes for granted the grifter’s faith in the lawlessness, disorder and potential for larcenous self-invention in an easy-money society that allows brilliant sociopaths to fly high.

With its star’s transmutation into a slightly milder variation of his standard screen persona, “I Love You Phillip Morris” is a Jim Carrey movie all the way: a good one, I might add. With his manic glare, ferociously eager smile, hyperkinetic body language and talent for instant self-transformation, Mr. Carrey has rarely been more charismatic on the screen.

Because it is a sexually forthright gay love story, “I Love You Phillip Morris” is also transgressive, at least by Hollywood standards. From the moment Steven meets the title character (Ewan McGregor), a gentle blond Southerner with whom he falls in love at first sight, he is obsessively besotted and will do anything to be with his beloved. The movie is as blunt about the mechanics of gay sex as an episode of “South Park,” and it is likely to meet grass-roots resistance. A star vehicle whose first gay erotic moment shows Mr. Carrey engaged in loud anal sex is asking for trouble.

The mixture of solemnity and caution that usually attach to homosexuality in movies is almost completely absent. Even AIDS is matter-of-factly addressed. But because the movie is really a farce with a bittersweet subtext, that hot action isn’t so hot. For all the kisses exchanged by Mr. Carrey and Mr. McGregor (with a shag haircut and a persuasive Southern vocal twang), there is no suggestion of any serious chemistry between the actors. But there is sweetness. In one scene the lovers slow dance and smooch to Johnny Mathis singing “Chances Are,” oblivious to the riot erupting outside their prison cell.

The story, narrated by Steven from his apparent deathbed, dashes pell-mell through his youth and young adulthood. Upon learning he is adopted, he vows to lead a model-citizen existence, becomes a policeman, marries and sires two children with Debbie (Leslie Mann), a devout Christian airhead. But his days of being a good boy end abruptly after he discovers his birth mother on a police computer, pays her an unannounced visit and has the door slammed in his face.

After an emotional collapse and his near death in a car crash, he vows henceforth to be himself, which means openly, aggressively gay. Moving to Florida, he acquires a boyfriend (Rodrigo Santoro) and adopts an extravagant lifestyle that he supports through insurance and credit-card schemes that eventually land him in jail. While incarcerated he meets Phillip (serving time for auto theft) in the prison library and arranges for them to be cellmates. Upon his release Steven impersonates Phillip’s defense lawyer and succeeds in setting his lover free.

In one of his boldest scams Steven cons his way into a job as the chief financial officer of a medical management company from which he blithely embezzles hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the scenes of Steven acting up in the courtroom or trotting out fake statistics at a business meeting are preposterous, they keep the movie aloft.

Steven’s hair’s-breadth escapes from the police and from prison are Keystone Kops-worthy escapades that involve only a modicum of suspense. It is all one big lark. Even “Catch Me If You Can,” another lighthearted film about a master impostor, conveyed a more palpable sense of risk and provided some notion of how its protagonist carried off his impersonations of a pilot, a doctor and a prosecutor.

I won’t give away Steven’s ultimate scam, but it is enough to make you gasp at its audacity. More than improbable, it seems impossible. But it happened.

“I Love You Phillip Morris” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has strong sexual content, profanity and mild violence.

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Written and directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, based on the book by Steve McVicker; director of photography, Xavier Pérez Grobet; edited by Thomas J. Nordberg; music by Nick Urata; production design by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; costumes by David C. Robinson; produced by Andrew Lazar and Far Shariat; released by Roadside Attractions. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.

WITH: Jim Carrey (Steven Russell), Ewan McGregor (Phillip Morris), Leslie Mann (Debbie), Rodrigo Santoro (Jimmy), Antoni Corone (Lindholm), Brennan Brown (Birkheim), Michael Mandel (Cleavon) and Annie Golden (Eudora).

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In 'Phillip Morris,' A Criminally Charming Fellow

Bob Mondello

Match Made In Prison: Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor, left) joyfully greets con man Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) during one of Russell's outlandish escape plans -- all of which are aimed at winning them a happily-ever-after outside the barbed wire. Patti Perret/Roadside Attractions hide caption

I Love You Phillip Morris

Director: John Requa, Glenn Ficarra
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Running Time: 98 minutes

Rated R for sexual content including strong dialogue and language.

With: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Michael Mandel

(Recommended)

The con-man comedy I Love You Phillip Morris premiered almost two years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, garnering lots of talk, admiring reviews, and laughs aplenty. It has since played around the world from London to Hong Kong, even becoming a surprise smash in Latvia. Only now, however, is it opening in the U.S.

The reasons for the delay -- rival distributors, lawsuits and so on -- aren't as intriguing as the true story that inspired the film. I'll brush that in below (for more details, check out Pat Dowell's prison interview ), but let's start with the improbable-but-true story of the unreliable narrator at the center of it all. His name's Steven Russell, and he lived what you might call a storied life. For a while, he was a stand-up guy: a policeman, a church organist, by all accounts a good father and by his wife's account a great husband.

He was also a scam artist and con man who led police on a merry -- no, make that a gay -- chase for quite a few years.

See, marriage and kids notwithstanding, Steven, played in the film by an antic Jim Carrey, was living life on the down-low. (But in high style, which proved expensive.) When he started scamming insurance companies, employers and pretty much anyone else who came his way, he ended up in prison.

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Con king steven russell: he still loves phillip morris.

That's where he met title character Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) a sweet guy who was serving time not for tobacco abuses (the cigarette company spells its moniker with one 'L'), but for keeping a rental car too long. Sweeping Phillip into his confidence and off his feet, Steven thereafter did most of his cons in order to keep the two of them together.

Liar Liar meets Obi-Wan? Who'da thunk even fearless star power could make these two work as a romantic pair? But both stars prove to be enormous fun in a gay love story played straight in a thoroughly crooked context --a comic crooked context, mind you, with lots of physical comedy because that's what Jim Carrey does, and a surprising amount of actual feeling, because that's also what Jim Carrey does, though he's not often given credit for it.

The result? A love-struck Catch Me If You Can , in which Steven cons his way out of prison, cons Phillip's way out of prison and even cons Phillip when he can, occasionally coming home with dollar bills spilling out of every pocket as if it's the most natural thing in the world.

Beyond the prison gates, Phillip Morris (McGregor) tries to live peacefully despite Steven's continued scams. Patti Perret/Roadside Attractions hide caption

Beyond the prison gates, Phillip Morris (McGregor) tries to live peacefully despite Steven's continued scams.

You'd think all of this would be lent a certain gravitas by the fact that the off-screen Steven Russell is a real con, sitting in a real Texas prison. Having escaped four times, he has now embarrassed state authorities so much that they keep him on 23-hour lockdown for fear that if they allow him to mingle with the general prison population, he'll escape again. One time, he even managed to convince them he'd died.

But writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa -- the guys who wrote Bad Santa -- are hardly the sort of filmmakers who'd approach this story as a biopic. They cut seriousness with laughs at every plot twist; they're frank about sexuality without ever making gayness a punchline. They allow their stars to shine without pushing them to go over-the-top.

And they end up with a hilariously unlikely but entirely believable comic love story -- even as they pull a couple of ingeniously outrageous cons on the audience. (Recommended)

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I Love You Phillip Morris Reviews

With a solid script and daring performances, the film is enjoyable and will inevitably become a cult classic in spite of some of its uneven gags. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 2, 2022

Observed at a distance you cannot deny the cruel grace of this ridiculous tragic-comedy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 10, 2022

A comedy that's all the funnier for the laughs carrying weight, a drama that's all the slicker for having a lighter side, a bit of a mess but a really fun mess...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 19, 2021

Hilariously forthright about Steven's sexuality in ways queer problem dramas rarely begin to suggest, I Love You Phillip Morris lights a path for American gay cinema beyond niche-oriented indies and bigger-budget films about martyred role models.

Full Review | Mar 22, 2021

Just the kind of role Carrey needed to stir up some controversy and deliver himself another chance to be seen in a slightly new light on the big screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Far too tragic to be funny and far too funny to be tragic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 11, 2020

Neither the filmmakers nor actor Carrey appear to be able to make any distinction between when Steve is full of baloney and when he's sincere.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 16, 2019

... if you want to enjoy a comedy that handles a traditional little love story with tremendous cheek, do not miss I Love You Phillip Morris. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2018

The movie wants us to overlook its implausibility by insisting that it's all true. We believe it, we just don't care.

Full Review | Feb 8, 2018

[E]asily one of the best comedies of the last several years.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2013

Jim Carrey succeeds but the film is too mean-spirited and its supporting players too one-dimensional to make this story worthwhile.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/5 | Jun 30, 2013

Even when the movie's doing something stupid, you just bemusedly shake your head and dive right back in, forgiving everything, even if you don't know why. Isn't that what love's all about?

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jun 22, 2013

Despite its title, it has nothing to do with cigarettes. But its star, as he once famously said on screen, is absolutely "smokin'."

Full Review | Jan 16, 2013

...it's the film's fearless go-for broke style which makes I Love You Phillip Morris such a success.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2012

Jim Carrey brings dynamo force to the story of a brilliant con man and the guy he loved

Full Review | Aug 12, 2011

ILYPM is quite good and it's a shame that this film was shunted around the backburners for so long.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2011

Above all, it is the wonderful performances of Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as a couple of misfits for whom love is everything, that stay with us

Full Review | Jul 31, 2011

I'm describing I Love You Phillip Morris as an inferior version of Catch Me If You Can. It's trying to tell a similar story in a similar vein but it just doesn't work.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jul 11, 2011

Inspirada en una increíble historia real, esta comedia de Jim Carrey no es para nada la típica comedia de Jim Carrey, aunque haga uso de sus habituales recursos histriónicos. Una comedia romántica absurda, irreverente y gay.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 17, 2011

But truth be told, no film has conveyed true love quite as convincingly in a very long time.

Full Review | May 15, 2011

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS Review

Matt's review of I Love You Phillip Morris. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the film stars Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, and Leslie Mann.

"Be yourself," is a quaint piece of advice that's helpful as long as your life is uncomplicated and you're a genuinely good person who is bound to be accepted by everyone you meet. Or you could be Stephen Russell, a gay con man who was enjoyed living a lie whether he was in the closet or out of it. I Love You Phillip Morris has the potential to really delve into some fulfilling satire of American attitudes towards homosexual. However, the film is more interested in examining Russell as a larger-than-life individual and using broad dark comedy to make its mark. The film delivers laughs, but it never aspires to leave much of a lasting impression.

Jim Carrey plays Russell: a good, church-going police officer who was a closeted homosexual but decided to come out flaming after a near-fatal car crash. But as Russell explains in his narration, "Being gay is expensive ." So Russell took to being a con man, which worked out okay until he—like all con men who don't run financial firms—got caught and sent to prison. There he meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a gentle soul who's also in the joint for fraud. The two begin a mostly-honest romance as Stephen makes tiny fibs (like saying he's a lawyer), but the two are smitten with each other. The film then chronicles how Stephen's knack for conning kept them together until it tore them apart.

While McGregor adds a lot of heart, the film truly belongs to Carrey. Sadly, it's a role that could have used a bit more restraint. While Russell is a grandiose figure in terms of his cons and personality, Carrey plays him more like a goofball caricature. He manages to keep Stephen affable, but the performance also creates a distance that makes it difficult to tap into the seriousness of his love for Phillip. It's a rich character, but he's constantly hiding behind Carrey's gigantic grin and cornpone accent.

The film is at turns satirical, goofy, and broad, but it works best when it goes dark. There's a delightful mean streak running through I Love You Phillip Morris , but directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa skillfully mange to keep it from falling into cynicism. It's just a big ticking time bomb as we get to know a man who can escape prison but never his own lies. The story flirts with the emotional weight of Stephen's cumulative cons and his pathological need to hide the truth. It also briefly makes a cultural criticism of how asking a gay person to pretend that their straight, to deny their love and their sexual identity, in turn makes them a kind of con artist. But it never fully grasps the deeper emotion and thoughtful ideas. I Love You Phillip Morris is happiest when it's making an off-color joke or showing Stephen's magnificent cons.

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Film review: i love you phillip morris.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" is of the ethereal-absurdist-gay-romantic-biographical farce genre, which begs the question: "How are you going to market this?" Basically, just say Jim Carrey struts his stuff in this engaging oddity.

By Duane Byrge , The Associated Press January 19, 2009 10:30am

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Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY — “I Love You Phillip Morris” doesn’t have anything to do with smoking, but that’s about the only thing it’s not connected to. It’s of the ethereal-absurdist-gay-romantic-biographical farce genre, which begs the question: “How are you going to market this?” Basically, just say Jim Carrey struts his stuff in this engaging oddity.

Carrey is at his nimble best as Steve, a Texas family man and lawman who bolts out of the closet into a life of, well, everything. He makes up for his lost years of a straight-arrow, heterosexual life by plunging headfirst into multiple lives of con man and lover. Based on a real-life character, Steve was abandoned at birth, and in the film’s glib psychology, he’s undertaking to find his real identity.

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I Love You Phillip Morris Review

17 Mar 2010

I Love You Phillip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris begins with a shot of an emaciated Jim Carrey, lying on a gurney, pining for death in a plaintive voiceover. For those of us who have endured Carrey’s attempts at overwhelming Oscar with a tsunami of sentiment, this is not a good sign. You could be forgiven for thinking that what will follow is 90 minutes of cloying worthiness.

Thankfully, though, this is a film — like its main character — that takes enormous pleasure in cheating, lying and defying expectations. As it turns out, this is not an asinine Oscar grab, but one of the sharpest, blackest and funniest comedies of the year. That it actually mutates into a truly touching and very moving love story featuring a stunning Carrey turn that should have, in an ideal world, resulted in an Oscar nod, is a happy accident.

The movie’s title refers to Phillip Morris, and while McGregor is fine in the role as a sweet, almost unrealistically innocent naif, it’s Carrey we follow throughout, with the comedian enjoying a dream role that allows him to combine his old-school comedic box of tricks — the pratfalls, the sweaty, manic intensity and even the odd rubber-faced gurn — with an emotional honesty that feels earned and genuine.

Ficarra and Requa, the debutant writer/directors here, wrote Bad Santa, and there’s no doubt they’re both drawn from the same, scabrous gene pool, with the duo tackling gags of all shapes and sizes, on any number of subjects, from anal sex (although, crucially, the fact that Steven and Phillip are gay is never a punchline) to corporate fraud. But they also bring a welcome panache to the material, with neatly framed visual jokes and one sustained sequence, in which a mouthy inmate hurls abuse at guards, that borders on the sublime.

And if, occasionally, their handling of the film’s more serious moments isn’t quite as sure-handed as the comedy, rest assured in the knowledge that the rug will soon be pulled from under your feet, and the laughter will begin again. Trust us.

Cast & crew
User reviews

I Love You Phillip Morris

A cop turns con man once he comes out of the closet. Once imprisoned, he meets the second love of his life, whom he'll stop at nothing to be with. A cop turns con man once he comes out of the closet. Once imprisoned, he meets the second love of his life, whom he'll stop at nothing to be with. A cop turns con man once he comes out of the closet. Once imprisoned, he meets the second love of his life, whom he'll stop at nothing to be with.

Glenn Ficarra
Steve McVicker
Ewan McGregor
Leslie Mann
192 User reviews
244 Critic reviews
65 Metascore
6 wins & 11 nominations

Steven Russell

Phillip Morris

Barbara Bascombe
(as Mary Louise Burke)

See all cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia In the last courtroom scene, Steven's lawyer is played by the real-life Phillip Morris.
Goofs When Steven is leaving the private care facility the calender shown skips the 14th of the month.

Phillip Morris : Enough romance. Let's fuck!

Crazy credits The very end of the credits has a list of Thank Yous. The last two items on the list are Redbull and Xanax.
Connections Featured in De wereld draait door: Episode #5.154 (2010)
Soundtracks Hallelujah, We Shall Rise Performed by The Yellowdog Prophet Choir Directed by Albinas Prizgintas Produced and Arranged by Jay Weigel Written by J.E. Thomas Courtesy of Interpublications, Texas Legendary Music (BMI) Eric Zukoski Music (BMI)

User reviews 192

tinker4showz
Nov 29, 2021
How long is I Love You Phillip Morris? Powered by Alexa
January 7, 2011 (United States)
United States
Official site
Seni sevaman, Fillip Morris
Los Angeles, California, USA
Consolidated Pictures Group
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$13,000,000 (estimated)
Dec 5, 2010
$20,768,906

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 38 minutes
Dolby Digital

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You review: I Love You Phillip Morris

The critics are, for the most part, quietly enamoured of Jim Carrey's flamboyant portrayal of the real-life con man who escaped from jail four times and swindled thousands of dollars, all supposedly in the name of love. Some even suggest that this is the comic's best performance in years, though a minority are concerned that the complex and mercurial nature of the real Steven Russell , a highly intelligent former deputy police officer who has had at least 14 known aliases, is somewhat obscured by Carrey's garish grandstanding.

I Love You Phillip Morris centres on Russell's journey from happily married Virginian family man and regular churchgoer to the notorious, openly gay prisoner currently serving a 144-year life sentence – most of it in solitary confinement – following his audacious multiple escapes. Along the way, he spends time living what he imagines to be the lifestyle of a gay high roller in Miami, embezzles thousands of dollars from a medical company where he fraudulently secures a job as chief financial officer, and enables the release of himself and lover Morris, a shy and inoffensive southerner played by Ewan McGregor who he met behind bars at the Harris County Jail.

"There is something funny and touching about this anarchic, abortive love affair, a chaotically doomed relationship that neither of the principals understand," writes our own Peter Bradshaw . "Steven's bluffs and blags are arguably just a crazily magnified version of the fake-it-till-you-make-it routine that many entirely honest people find themselves needing to use. Poor Steven does see himself as basically one of these decent, honest types. 'Sometimes you've got to shave a little off the puzzle-piece to make it fit,' he muses. The puzzle fits together very entertainingly here."

"It's the comic role of a lifetime for Jim Carrey, who apparently worked for union rates in order to help the film get made," writes Channel 4 Film's Catherine Bray . "[He and McGregor] have a weirdly believable, natural chemistry despite their larger than life roles."

"This witty, engaging film proves love has its own strange logic," writes The Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu , though he adds: "Carrey, in his best performance for a long time, still struggles to rein in his urge to over-gesticulate."

Trevor Johnston of Time Out concurs. "Unfortunately, the bizarre true-life aspect gets swamped by Carrey's ramped-up zeal, delivering a series of showpiece flourishes which dazzle at first but then prove wearing," he complains. "Maybe we don't quite buy Jim and Ewan's hots for one another, maybe the writing makes Carrey's character too much of a psychotic narcissist while rendering McGregor in terms of fluffy-bunny passivity, but either way it just ain't happening."

In real life, Russell's escape plans were both spectacular and disarmingly simple. Twice, he walked out of prison after changing his clothes for those of a civilian, and his final escape was completed after he claimed to have contracted Aids and had himself transferred to a bogus special programme for the terminally ill before reporting his own death to the prison authorities. I Love You Phillip Morris paints him as a lovable, eccentric rogue, and while there are also strong suggestions of the self-deception that underscored Russell's darker side, Carrey and writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa choose to play up the screwball aspect of this intriguing story rather than plumping for what might have been a more ultimately satisfying character-study approach.

This rather safer take is perhaps forgivable given the film's non-commercial subject matter and its consequent difficulties securing distribution in the US, but it does, at times, mean we are given the gurning, maniacal Carrey of old, rather than the more nuanced performance that we all know he's capable of in the wake of films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Truman Show .

Have you seen I Love You Phillip Morris? Was it a splendidly flashy romp through the life of a genial grifter, or a wasted opportunity to get under the skin of a persona infinitely more complex than that depicted on film?

Ewan McGregor

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Movie Review: I Love You, Philip Morris

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor go gay in a very funny - if very unusual - true-life tale

Cert: 15, 1hr 40 mins

Starring: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor

When promoting I Love You, Philip Morris at the Sundance Film Festival last year, Jim Carrey was keen to point out that the film – one of the festival’s biggest hits – wasn’t a “gay movie”.

“I don’t think it’s a gay movie,” he said of the true story of cop-turned-conman-turned-corporate-embezzler Steven Russell , who finds himself perpetually breaking out of prison in order to be with his true love, Philip Morris .

“It’s a movie about humanity. It’s a movie about the perspective of my character. About the lengths we go to for acceptance and love.”

Of course, this was only slightly undermined by the fact he was speaking in a gay bar at the time – where the press conference was held.

So yes, of course it’s a gay film. They’re both gay, and the film doesn’t shy away from that (though, notably, we only see them kissing in silhouette – they could both have “gay double” shadow puppets for all we know). But Carrey had a point: it’s also incidental. Philip Morris could have been Pippa Morris – it wouldn’t change a thing.

And it’d be sad indeed if it was adversely affected by prejudice of any sort. Because gay or straight, bi or Conservative MP, some things are universal. Funny is funny. Part Catch Me If You Can , part Brokeback Mountain and part Great Escape , I Love You, Philip Morris – from the writers of Bad Santa – is a hard film to categorise.

That it’s a real life story is incredible. Steven becomes a cop, cons his way into a food company, leaves his wife, gets into fraud, into prison, falls in love with the sweet Philip Morris ( Ewan McGregor ), and spends the rest of the film either committing more crime, breaking out of jail to see Philip , or breaking in (posing as a lawyer) to get him released.

It’s at once biographical, absurdist, romantic, farcical, serious and stupid. With some great blowjob jokes.

McGregor is good as the slightly-fey but not overly-camp object of Steven ’s affections, but it’s Carrey who’s most impressive. His rubber face now raveaned with laugh lines (or should that be stretch marks?), this isn’t the Serious Carrey of The Truman Show – but it’s also not the Comedy Carrey of Ace Ventura .

For the first time, it’s a successful combination of both. And if the same could be said of this genre-mixing film – a comedy that’s all the funnier for the laughs carrying weight, a drama that’s all the slicker for having a lighter side, a bit of a mess but a really fun mess – it could also be said of Carry ’s character, someone you can’t help but like, but someone the film never strains to make likeable.

“How can I love you?” says McGregor at one point of Steven ’s compulsive lying and trickery – traits that aide his escapes, but ones that get him banged up in the first place. “ You don’t even know who you are”.

Stuart McGurk

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DVD & Streaming

I Love You Phillip Morris

Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

December 3, 2010
Jim Carrey as Steven Russell; Ewan McGregor as Phillip Morris; Leslie Mann as Debbie; Rodrigo Santoro as Jimmy

Home Release Date

April 5, 2011
Glenn Ficarra|John Requa

Distributor

Roadside Attractions

Movie Review

“Love sure is a funny thing,” Steven Russell drawls in a voiceover as he lies dying on a hospital gurney at the outset of I Love You Phillip Morris . “It makes you happy. It makes you sad. It makes you do all kinds of things.” Any and/or all of those sentiments could be nominated for “Understatement of the Year” awards in what is among the most jarringly, bizarrely sexually explicit two hours of tragidramedy ever put to film.

I Love You Phillip Morris chronicles the unlikely real-life odyssey of one Steven Russell. Ten minutes into it, we come to realize that two things shape Steven’s identity. One: He is gay. Two: He is a liar. Both are Olympic-level character traits. When we first meet him, though, neither is apparent. Steven is merely muddling through a pedestrian life. He plays piano and praises God at church. He’s married to an effusive, big-haired woman from Texas. He’s a conscientious police officer.

But we soon learn that Steven, who was adopted, only became a police officer in order to track down his biological mother (who rejects him when he finally finds her). His marriage and faith are shams, too, and a car crash after a homosexual tryst serves as the catalyst for him to confess his double life. “No more lies,” he says. “I’m gonna be the real me. Do what I want. F‑‑‑ who I want. … I’m gonna be a fag!”

Goodbye wife, daughter, church and badge. Hello Miami … and the most gay-centric lifestyle he can orchestrate. There’s only one problem, Steven says: “Being gay is really expensive.”

To finance his flamboyance, Steven initiates one con after another, faking accidents and collecting fat insurance checks. Eventually, though, his “luck” runs out as his sexual partner, Jimmy, dies of AIDS and Steven gets arrested.

What would seem to be the end of the story, however, is merely the beginning. In prison, Steven meets a new flame: Phillip Morris, a fragile, porcelain naïf who is as devoid of guile as Steven is shot through with it. Steven is smitten and determines to get both of them get out of prison. He determines to protect and provide for Phillip at any cost.

So his cons amp up to utterly unbelievable levels—except that they’re based on a true story. Steven becomes CFO of a Texas corporation. He poses as a lawyer. And after he and Phillip go back to prison for embezzling millions, Steven fakes his own death from AIDS … then returns to prison and court as Phillip’s lawyer in a bid to free him.

Positive Elements

As more mainstream movies feature storylines revolving around homosexual characters in marriage-like relationships, disclaimers become more and more useful in this section of Plugged In’ s reviews. So I’ll repeat the one I inserted into The Kids Are All Right : “Since the plot pivots on the unstated assumption that a long-term relationship between two same-sex partners is both normative and acceptable, any positivity surrounding that assumption has to be divorced from it.”

Steven can’t stop lying, scamming and conning. But he is genuinely compelled to care for Phillip. When Phillip fully realizes just how fake Steven’s entire professional life is, he leaves him. Phillip rightly tells Steven that he can’t be in a relationship with a person who’s so utterly deceptive. Phillip also states that he has no idea who Steven really is, and he suggests that Steven has no idea of his own identity underneath all the lies either.

Throughout the film, Steven remains in contact with his ex-wife, Debbie. She has forgiven him for abandoning her, and encourages him to give up his deceptive ways and to trust Jesus. (More on that in “Spiritual Content.”) Steven’s odd, ongoing relationship with Debbie is more than perfunctory, though. Even as he ignores (and at times mocks) her advice, he values the fact that she knows exactly who he is and still holds on to hope that he can change.

At one point, Steven sends Debbie and their daughter a huge sum of ill-gotten cash for Christmas. Debbie refuses it. Early on, Steven is shown tenderly and affectionately tucking his daughter in to sleep.

Spiritual Elements

The film opens with Steven playing piano in church as the choir sings. Shortly thereafter, Steven and Debbie pray before bed. She thanks God for an assorted list of mundane blessings (finding coffee filters, a negative allergy test) before waxing effusive in her praise for Steven. “Thank you for this man, Jesus,” she says, before talking about how he passionately pursued her and how he’s brought her “eternal happiness.”

Debbie’s faith is little more than a satirical caricature, and her primary role in the movie is to generate a few fringe laughs. But she doesn’t know that, if you can split storytelling hairs that finely. To her, her faith is earnest and real, and she keeps talking about Jesus in conversations with Steven even after he leaves her. At one point she tells him that his choices are “not what the Lord wants.” Elsewhere she exhorts, “Jesus has a plan”—an assertion Steven mocks.

A cabbie asks Steven if he can share with him the “Word of Jesus Christ.” Then he begins by quoting Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and love shall follow me all the days of my life.” At the end of the ride, the driver is still reciting memorized verses to Steven.

Sexual Content

Steven and Debbie have sex. Movement is seen under the covers while they carry on a casual conversation. Another scene pictures them kissing passionately in front of others.

The scene in which we learn that Steven is cheating on his wife with men happens immediately after that prolonged kiss. We see Steven’s bare chest and sexual movements, and we’re obviously meant to think he’s with Debbie again. Then the camera pans down to reveal that he’s with a man, who proceeds to shout profane, extraordinarily explicit instructions.

Steven and Phillip kiss several times. They hug, cuddle and are otherwise affectionate. Two instances of oral sex are implied by just-out-of-frame motion. Steven gives a detailed commentary on one of the encounters. The other concludes with one of the men spitting over the side of a boat.

There are also a half-dozen crude, graphic references to oral sex (mostly in the context of how to get what you want in prison). An explicit conversation revolves around sex-position preferences.

Voiceover narration from Steven tells us he’s always known he was a homosexual. And a flashback to his childhood shows him commenting on a cloud’s phallic shape. On a financial report, Steven sketches cartoonish penises. He goes to a gay dance club, where men dance provocatively in various states of undress.

Violent Content

Steven’s Corvette gets violently broadsided in an intersection, and he’s bloodied by the impact. Later, he jumps from a hospital rooftop, hoping to land in a full dumpster. He doesn’t. We see him unconscious in a pool of blood. A montage of Steven’s cons show him “accidentally” falling at various businesses.

Several brutal prison beatdowns get screen time. Steven tells a newcomer that you have to fight to earn respect. We hear an inmate being beaten by guards. To get to the infirmary, Steven has a fellow inmate strike him in the face, producing a deep cut. When Steven arranges for a man in Phillip’s cell block who makes awful noises at night to be horrifically beaten in order to shut him up, Phillip says that its the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for him.

A flashback shows Steven’s dad hitting his brother when the boy blurts out that Steven was adopted. Phillip slaps Steven twice.

Crude or Profane Language

More than 50 f-words. Ten s-words. A half-dozen abuses of God’s name and one of Jesus’. “Fag” or “faggot” are used six or seven times. Harsh slang terms reference male and female anatomy. About 25 other vulgarities include “a‑‑,” “a‑‑hole,” “b‑‑ch,” “d‑‑n” and “h‑‑‑.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

In a suicide attempt, Steven swallows prescription meds and ends up hospitalized. An attempt to escape custody involves him swiping Phillip’s insulin and shooting syringes full of it into himself in a police car (resulting in another hospitalization). Characters imbibe beer at a party and at a dance club. Another gathering features champagne.

Other Negative Elements

Steven’s parents say they “adopted” him by giving his mother money in the hospital parking lot. When Steven tries to talk to his biological mother, telling her, “I forgive you,” she slams the door and yells, “Go away.” Steven waves her front door welcome mat and shouts, “This is a lie.”

And virtually everything Steven does after that point is a lie as well.

Guards may as well not even lock the door on Steven’s cell. He manipulates the system so efficiently that he can get virtually anything he wants from the outside, and he repeatedly finds ways to forge important legal documents that help him get out. Once, he uses ink from a ballpoint pen to dye his prison fatigues to look like a medical orderly … and then just walks free.

Steven’s most audacious con involves pretending to be dying of AIDS. He starves himself for months and forges documents suggesting that he has the disease. Then he gets himself transferred to a fictional AIDS research hospice, fakes his own death and shows up in court as Phillip’s lawyer.

It’s safe to say that Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Steven Russell is utterly unlike anything he’s ever done. And he’s played some pretty outrageous, erratic characters in his time.

Writing for the U.K.’s Daily Mail , reviewer Chris Tookey put it this way: “Some people will flinch at the gay sex scenes, which are surprisingly explicit for a mainstream comedy. But you don’t need to be homophobic to hate Carrey’s character. … This is the kind of desperately sad, would-be offbeat movie that A-list stars make only when their career is on the skids. It’s a horrifyingly misjudged mix of comedy and drama, caper flick and romance, middle-of-the-road Hollywood product and raunchy sex comedy. Jaw-droppingly unfunny and morally despicable, it doesn’t work on any level.”

Steven describes his motivation for becoming a cop—finding his birth mother—as “not right or moral.” That summary does double duty for the rest of the film.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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I Love You Phillip Morris review

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor take centre stage in I Love You Phillip Morris. And Mark's been along to check the film out...

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There are typically only two means through which ‘gay’ movies make it into the American mainstream. The first is through prestige and ‘worthiness’. The excellent Brokeback Mountain resides here, but that it lost the Academy Award for Best Picture to racial-tension potboiler Crash was more a statement about America’s guilty conscience on the subject than of which film deserved it more.

The second is to portray homosexuality as a joke. This has proven the more financially viable route Stateside, with the lamentable I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry taking a lot more at the box office than the award-winning ‘gay Western’. While we’re hardly living in the dark ages, there’s no denying that cinema-goers aren’t entirely comfortable with this supposed taboo just yet.

Enter I Love You Phillip Morris , which crosses between both and has thus had a troubled path to cinemas. Indeed, at one stage it looked likely that the film would go straight to DVD. The subject of the studios’ reticence is Steven Russell, played by Jim Carrey, a Texan cop who comes out of the closet in the wake of a near-fatal traffic accident.

Steven then ups and leaves his happy (and more challengingly, Christian) family to live in excess with his boyfriend Jimmy, becoming a conman to fund his expensive new lifestyle. When the law catches up with him, Steven is sent to prison, where he meets Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor. The mild-mannered Phillip has his head turned by Steven, and the two spend the next few years flitting in and out of jail in their efforts to be together.

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Jim Carrey has had hits and misses in both his comedic and dramatic roles, and I’m pleased to report that his work in I Love You Phillip Morris counts as a hit. He strikes just the right balance, in a marriage of his more over-the-top acting ( Liar Liar ), and his more restrained and dramatic performances ( The Truman Show ).

While Ewan McGregor amiably continues to get his career back on track now he’s finished faffing about with George Lucas and Dan Brown, and Leslie Mann makes a brief but memorable impression as Steven’s befuddled ex-wife, it’s really Carrey’s show. He’s surprisingly intense in places, but he still has better comic timing than most actors working today, and he’s never any less than compelling here.

The mix of comedy and drama in the script itself is often unsettling, but you can really expect nothing less from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the writers of Bad Santa .

At key points of the film, you’ll have the rug pulled out from underneath you in much the same way as the victims of Steven’s cons. It can lull you into a false sense of poignancy and then make you laugh out loud. It can have you chuckling away and then emotionally sucker-punch you. Whatever your thoughts on homosexuality, this isn’t a film you can relax into.

The ‘gay thing’, as I’ve heard it referred to by more uncomfortable viewers than I, is never really the punchline to any of the jokes, and the film is better for it. Only one scene stood out as a contrivance. An escape attempt by Steven leads him to procure some clothes from another inmate. Apparently, all he could get was a leopard-print mesh vest and some red hotpants. Either he’s the least resourceful inmate ever, or the writers really wanted to put Carrey in that kind of sight gag.

Besides that, the only other off-putting aspect of the film was the appearance of Brennan Brown, better known to cinema fans as Mr. Dresden, the mind-addled film producer from those Orange ads before the film begins. Just as in last year’s State Of Play , it’s really jarring to see him doing anything serious when you saw him just a short while before, trying to get Danny Glover to promote ‘Dial Hard’.

On the whole, I Love You Phillip Morris is funny as hell, and in several instances, it’s really profound. Ficarra and Requa never shoehorn homosexuality into any of the parodic tropes you’ve seen elsewhere, and it’s just a very well-written and likable comedy.

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I don’t doubt that The Bounty Hunter is a more likely romcom prospect this weekend, but shame on the American distributors, anyway. In this case, audiences should choose Ewan McGregor as the lead love interest over Jennifer Aniston any day.

Mark Harrison | @MHarrison90

Mark is a writer from Middlesbrough, who once drunkenly tried (and failed) to pitch a film about his hometown to a director from Pixar. Fortunately, he…

Movie review: ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’

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When a romantic comedy opens with kids looking for shapes in the clouds and one young lad spots a “wiener” — and he’s not talking hotdogs — it’s a pretty good bet that a conventional love story is not going to follow.

That is most definitely the case in the audacious and wildly out-of-control farce of “I Love You Phillip Morris,” with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as a match made in prison. And, trust me, that is a long way from heaven.

Though the film, and its many whimsical visual and musical flourishes, evokes a kind of warped funhouse effect, this is a true-life tale of a small-time lawman turned con artist and the lengths he goes to for the man of his dreams. So it was never going to be an easy project.

But John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, veteran writing partners with the coal-in-your-stocking fun of “Bad Santa,” their best work to date, wanted to give it a try and are making their feature directing debut as well. It’s clear from first frame to last that the filmmakers decided to go broad, very broad, with a story that swings between hysterical, hyper-sexual, bizarre, surprisingly tender and just plain awful. This is one mixed bag of a movie.

Based on the novel by Steve McVicker, “Phillip Morris” follows the strange saga of Steven Russell (Carrey), which begins in Texas in the mid-’80s. Steven is a small-town deputy living a conventional life complete with a wife, Debbie ( Leslie Mann), and child, singing in the church choir and telling bad jokes to anyone who will listen.

There’s a horrific car accident, an “I’m gay” epiphany and, like a chameleon, Steven sheds the first of the many skins he will lose over the course of the film. He trades Texas for Miami, strolling South Beach’s boulevards in blinding white polyester with his first great love, Jimmy ( Rodrigo Santoro). Jimmy’s AIDS-related death and some questionable business deals put Steven in a tailspin that soon sends him to jail and into the arms of the shy, Southern sweetness of Phillip Morris (McGregor).

Amped up by director of photography Xavier Grobet’s eye-popping Technicolor style (at times it outshines the performances), here’s where things really get crazy as Steven concocts one outlandish scheme after another to stay with Phillip. His actions lead to an endless spin-cycle of escape and incarceration, sometimes legal, often not, with Steven brilliantly inventive at outsmarting the penal system. On the outside, he has a Midas touch too, a good thing, since he wants to give Phillip the world. All Phillip wants is someone he can trust. Lovers’ quarrels and longer jail sentences ensue.

Beyond the stereotypes and clichés — Steven and Jimmy have matching Chihuahuas, Steven and Phillip have matching cars — the movie doesn’t really have much to say about being gay, being in love or being in prison, beyond making the point that if you’re jailed in Texas, you’ve got a better-than-even chance of escaping.

But the biggest problem is Carrey himself. The actor has always been a tough nut to crack. Sometimes his goofball sensibility is exactly what’s called for, whether it’s in the lowbrow “Dumb & Dumber” or the far more clever “Liar Liar.” When he’s stepped away from all that manic energy, he’s capable of delivering something wonderful, like the heartbroken man clinging to love in the memory poem “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” or the unsuspecting reality TV star in “The Truman Show.”

Though Carrey seems to be giving his heart to Steven’s romance with Phillip, and pouring a lot of sweat equity into very vigorous sex, he never gets beyond his Jim Carrey-ness to let us discover the character. As for McGregor, the film will likely be little more than a footnote in his career.

What’s worrisome, though, is the subtext. “I Love You Phillip Morris” too often plays as an apology, as if the directors are trying to compensate for the gay love story by pushing everything over the top. Were they hoping all the silliness would make it more palatable for the mainstream? I thought we were beyond that.

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Movie Review of ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ (2010)

Posted by Cal Knox | Dec 30, 2010 | Comedy , Drama , Romance | 3 |

At the start of I Love You Phillip Morris , the words “ This really happened ” appear on-screen. And to reinforce the point, the filmmakers also added the words “ It really did “. Indeed, this Jim Carrey vehicle is the type of film you would not believe unless you knew it to be true. Additionally, for those who were expecting this to be another Carrey comedy featuring the actor’s trademark over-the-top, rubber-faced antics, prepare to be surprised. Based on the novel Prison Breaks as well as the memoirs of the main character, 2010’s I Love You Phillip Morris functions as a reminder of how good Carrey can be if he’s not tied to a generic Hollywood crowd-pleaser. Without a doubt, this is a unique motion picture which melds drama and dark comedy in a surprisingly effective fashion. Armed with a zippy pace, the film barrels through sufficient plot to form a miniseries, and, though it’s a tad uneven, this is a supremely entertaining motion picture.

After surviving a nasty car accident, married former police officer Steven Russell (Carrey) has a life-changing epiphany. No longer able to conceal his secret homosexuality, Steven comes out to his understanding wife Debbie (Mann), splits from his family, and moves with his boyfriend to Miami Beach. He finds his new lifestyle to be murder on his bank account, though, and Steven is soon committing every type of fraud under the sun until his actions are discovered and he is subsequently arrested. In prison, Steven meets fellow homosexual inmate Phillip Morris (McGregor), and the two instantly fall in love. Once their sentences are over, Steven and Phillip move in together. Thus begins a whirlwind love affair both in and out of prison, with Russell’s inability to avoid crime continuously affecting their relationship.

The truly original, unique I Love You Phillip Morris denotes the directorial debut for Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who wrote such motion pictures as Bad Santa and Bad News Bears . The comedy peppered throughout I Love You Phillip Morris is therefore marvellously dark and nasty. The premise is familiar (consider it the gay cousin of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me if You Can ), but the tone is what allows it to stand out – it’s kind of a darker, weirder Catch Me if You Can with the sick-joke nastiness of Bad Santa and the type of side characters you’d expect to see in a movie by the Coens or the Farrelly Brothers. Ficarra and Requa were able to keep the film frothy throughout while still developing an at times affecting sincerity. There’s a self-assuredness to the material that’s very heartening. As a comedy, I Love You Phillip Morris is genuinely clever and sly. As a biopic, it’s beguiling and informative. And finally, as a love story, the film is genuine and heartfelt.

Admittedly, the jam-packed plotting does not always make for a smooth-running picture, as Requa and Ficarra ended up relying a lot on voiceover narration. Also, the tonal shifts are at times rather sudden. Aside from these flaws, this is a sure-footed motion picture with a number of notable comedic moments. The matter-of-fact sexuality is admirably blunt, even if the traits of homosexuality are occasionally used for cheap laughs. As first-time filmmakers, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa exhibit a knack for smooth photography and imaginative montage (the assemblage of Steven’s various prison escapes is particularly jaunty), as well as a firm, savvy understanding of comedic composition. I Love You Phillip Morris also benefits from the bouncy score courtesy of Nick Urata. In particular, the recurrent main theme is highly enjoyable.

The believability of the relationship between Steven and Phillip is one of the strongest elements of the film, as there’s no doubt about how the men feel about one another. The motivations of the two are palpable and understandable – we can grasp the reasons why they do what they do. Of course, the casting helped tremendously in this department. Carrey adopted a southern drawl for his role of Steven Russell, and eased up on his trademark overcaffeination. Carrey’s performance is eccentric (though comparatively restrained) and charismatic; blending Carrey’s best absurdist stuff with the emotional range witnessed in such movies as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . Carrey’s work is particularly admirable in the sense that he was able to make the otherwise deplorable role into someone likable – no matter how many lies he tells or how much destruction he causes, it’s possible to be moved by the more tragic moments in his life. Yet, while Carrey is definitely the star of the film, Ewan McGregor is the emotional anchor. McGregor delivered a tender, sweet performance as the soft-spoken Phillip Morris. Also in the cast is Leslie Mann (Judd Apatow’s wife) who’s charming as Steven Russell’s former wife.

One would think that, in 2010, homosexuality would not be an issue in movies anymore. Yet, studio executives in Hollywood fretted over what to do with I Love You Phillip Morris for a couple of years. Due to the film’s frank depiction of love and sex between two consenting adult males (one of whom happens to be a borderline psychotic conman), it has been shuffled around for a while seeking a potential distributor. It’s fortunate the film was eventually released, as it’s more thoughtful and a lot less unsettling than the parade of pathetic heterosexual romantic comedies that blemish multiplexes every year. Unfortunately, it flopped hopelessly. Admittedly, the lightning-fast pace prevents the film from being anything too substantial, but I Love You Phillip Morris remains a sweet, at times amusing piece of entertainment.

About The Author

Watching, making and reviewing movies is my passion. I also post my reviews on Flixster (http://www.flixster.com/user/pvtcaboose91), Listal (http://pvtcaboose91.listal.com), and The Critical Critics (http://thecriticalcritics.com/review/author/pvtcaboose91).

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Very accurate description of an enjoyable movie, kudos

I look forward to seeing this even more now because of your review. Keep them coming.

Great review! Saw the movie a few months ago and enjoyed it very much, as a Carrey fan i think he played the role very well! Keep up the good reviews!

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California Literary Review

Movie review: i love you phillip morris, movie review: drive angry, movie review: unknown.

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The story of a real-life conman is sometimes funny, sometimes patently ridiculous, and could have been better.

Jim Carrey’s particular brand of putty-faced slapstick made him famous in the late ‘80s, but it wasn’t until the mid-90s that he surged out of television and became a bona fide movie star. Once upon a time, everywhere you went you heard teenagers worshipfully quoting his obnoxious, over-the-top characters in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Dumb and Dumber , and The Cable Guy. The actor has only been doing the occasional drama since 1998’s The Truman Show , but he’s shown remarkable ability to play against type. In this year’s I Love You, Phillip Morris , a true story about a gay Texas conman, he whips out a performance that is funny, silly, and believable. If you’re among the hordes that prefer Carrey less Ace Ventura, more Joel Barish, know this: his involvement in Phillip Morris shouldn’t be a deterrent to buying a ticket.

I Love You, Phillip Morris ’s first title cards implore us to trust the implausible: “This really happened. It really did.” Steven Russell (Carrey) is happily married to Debbie (Leslie Mann) when he narrates nonchalantly that oh, yeah, he’s gay (and is in fact having lots of sex with men). His whole life is an intricately layered lie. Since he was adopted he never knew his birth family. He’s not heterosexual, though he sometimes pretends to be. He’s not a lawyer, a CFO, or a rich man, but he plays these roles. What he is, is a criminal (albeit a likeable one). During Steven’s first stint in prison for insurance fraud, he falls for a fellow prisoner, fey, soft-spoken Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). The rest of the movie follows their dysfunctional love story through prison sentences, Corvettes, illnesses, mansions, and tribulations. The story is part Catch Me If You Can , part The Informant! , and part Get Real . Between bright spots in which Carrey showcases genuine emotion, the story cruises along at a jerky trot, sometimes comical and sometimes just a misstep away.

Production companies publicly balked at releasing I Love You, Phillip Morris due to its overtly gay content. It played in Europe and Asia in January and February, 2010, and should’ve enjoyed a wide release last summer. Unfortunately, it seems American audiences are wary of any more gay sex than they saw in Brokeback Mountain , and the release was pushed back yet again to December. At least since it’s been re-edited, the movie isn’t terribly graphic; there is no nudity and more romance than explicit sex. Unfortunately, the MPAA has made it perfectly clear that male nudity deserves its own category in movie ratings, and non-“mainstream” sex is verboten except in NC-17 films .

Carrey and McGregor are totally at ease with each other, and the romance is “played straight,” as much as a story this unbelievable can be. The pairing is facilitated in a same-sex prison (cue prison rape jokes, of which there are a few), but it’s only after the two get out that Steven attempts real shenanigans. The movie does suffer from uneven tone. Carrey fashions Steven into a likable, sympathetic criminal, but the sheer volume of his deception is mind-boggling—and by the end, you don’t blame Phillip in the least for staying the hell away. The script seesaws back and forth from slightly off-color chuckles (aren’t these guys just so flashy in their tight sailor pants?) to genuine sweetness (they are really in love)—and though it strives to show a same-sex relationship as something that just, you know, happens , it also relies on that coupling to provide laughs at the characters’ expense. (“Being gay is expensive!” Steven laments at one point, trying to explain his insurance fraud charges.)

McGregor, Carrey, and Mann turn in unexceptional performances—they are as good as they always are, bearing in mind the fact that Carrey’s acting isn’t as exaggerated as we’re used to. Cynthia Anne Slagter’s set decoration and David C. Robinson’s period costuming is spot-on—you’ll recognize the plaid burlap curtains that were so popular in the 1960s in Steven’s parents’ home, ruffled housedresses on Mann’s Debbie, and the 80s’ ubiquitous B.U.M. Equipment tee shirts. Cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet does what he can with the material, but nonetheless it’s seamless, invisible camerawork. The editing plays cheekily with conventional styles, but we’ve seen this before too: the camera frequently pauses on an abrupt action shot, allowing room for the narrator to fill in the audience before that shot is completed (David Fincher’s and Guy Ritchie’s movies over-utilize this technique). Directors Glenn Ficcara and John Requa take a half-hearted jab at George W. Bush: the final title card mentions that Steven was given “an unprecedented life sentence” in Texas under the direction of Governor Bush (I imagine Dubya would be ashamed of a flamboyantly gay con man who outsmarted the Texan prison system).

I Love You, Phillip Morris is not bound to be one of the year’s best, but neither is it one of the worst. It’s an engaging but uneven look at one remarkable life over the last thirty years. Steven Russell’s life as a free man was patently ridiculous, and certainly worth chronicling—but it could have been done better. Carrey and McGregor put forth their best effort, but even their good performances probably won’t draw more than a niche audience, especially considering how little fanfare it is attracting. The real Steven Russell’s every move was loud and astonishing, but I Love You, Phillip Morris will probably flutter in and out of theaters with a whisper.

I Love You Phillip Morris Trailer

Julia Rhodes graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Communication and Culture. She’s always been passionate about movies and media, and is particularly fond of horror and feminist film theory, but has a soft spot for teen romances and black comedies. She also loves animals and vegetarian cooking; who says horror geeks aren’t compassionate and gentle? Bank Routing Numbers

Julia Rhodes graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Communication and Culture. She's always been passionate about movies and media, and is particularly fond of horror and feminist film theory, but has a soft spot for teen romances and black comedies. She also loves animals and vegetarian cooking; who says horror geeks aren't compassionate and gentle? Bank Routing Numbers

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I Love You Phillip Morris Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video

By Joon Dutta Roy

I Love You Phillip Morris is a black comedy film that tells the real-life story of Steven Jay Russell, a con artist and prison escapee. Russell’s life changes drastically after a car accident leads him to embrace his true self as a gay man. He turns to cons and fraud to support his extravagant lifestyle, which lands him in prison. There, he falls in love with Phillip Morris. It was critically acclaimed upon its release and is deemed as a classic take on a real-life event.

Here’s how you can watch and stream I Love You Phillip Morris via streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video.

Is I Love You Phillip Morris available to watch via streaming?

Yes, I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

The movie follows Steven Jay Russell who leads an unsatisfactory married life. After an accident, he leaves his family for a new life that includes his encounters with homosexuality. On arriving in Florida, he engages in a couple of fraudulent activities that land him in jail. Things take an unexpected turn when he meets and falls in love with Phillip. His efforts to carry on with his relationship with the latter prompt him to delve further into the world of crime.

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor play Steven Russell and Phillip. Other casts include Rodrigo Santoro, Leslie Mann, Antoni Corone, Brennan Brown, and Michael Mandell.

Watch I Love You Phillip Morris streaming via Amazon Prime Video

I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon Prime Video is a popular streaming service offered by Amazon. It provides a wide range of movies, TV shows, original content, and live events for subscribers to enjoy. Prime Video offers a diverse selection of genres, including drama, comedy, action, thriller, and more.

You can watch the film via Amazon Prime Video by following these steps:

Go to Amazon Prime Video
Select ‘Sign in’ and ‘Create your Amazon account’
$8.99 per month for a standalone Prime Video membership

Amazon Prime is the online retailer’s paid service that provides fast shipping and exclusive sales on products, so the membership that includes both this service and Prime Video is the company’s most popular offering. However, you can also opt to subscribe to Prime Video separately.

I Love You Phillip Morris’ official synopsis is as follows:

“Steven Russell leads a seemingly average life – an organ player in the local church, happily married to Debbie, and a member of the local police force. That is until he has a severe car accident that leads him to the ultimate epiphany: he’s gay and he’s going to live life to the fullest – even if he has to break the law to do it. Taking on an extravagant lifestyle, Steven turns to cons and fraud to make ends meet and is eventually sent to the State Penitentiary where he meets the love of his life, a sensitive, soft-spoken man named Phillip Morris. His devotion to freeing Phillip from jail and building the perfect life together prompts him to attempt (and often succeed at) one impossible con after another.”

NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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I Love You Phillip Morris Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video

Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Here’s how you can watch and stream I Love You Phillip Morris via streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video.

Is I Love You Phillip Morris available to watch via streaming?

Yes, I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor play Steven Russell and Phillip. Other casts include Rodrigo Santoro, Leslie Mann, Antoni Corone, Brennan Brown, and Michael Mandell.

Watch I Love You Phillip Morris streaming via Amazon Prime Video

I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

You can watch the film via Amazon Prime Video by following these steps:

Go to Amazon Prime Video

Select ‘Sign in’ and ‘Create your Amazon account’

$8.99 per month for a standalone Prime Video membership

I Love You Phillip Morris’ official synopsis is as follows:

NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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The post I Love You Phillip Morris Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

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I Love You Phillip Morris Review

17 Mar 2010

I Love You Phillip Morris

IMAGES

DVD Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris movie review
I Love You Phillip Morris
Review: 'I Love You Phillip Morris'
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)

COMMENTS

I Love You Phillip Morris movie review (2010)
That "I Love You, Phillip Morris" is based on a true story is relevant only because it is too preposterous to be fiction. Russell is a con man, and his lifelong con is selling himself to himself. That process begins when he discovers he isn't who he thought he was. His parents tell him he is adopted.
I Love You Phillip Morris
Movie Info. Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) becomes a cop, gets married and starts a family, but after a terrible car accident, he vows to be true to himself. He comes out of the closet, moves to ...
I Love You, Phillip Morris
Peter Bradshaw. @PeterBradshaw1. J im Carrey's rubbery, hyperreal face achieves a sheen of panic and desperate neediness in this stranger-than-fiction comedy drawn from real life. Steven Russell ...
Jim Carrey in 'I Love You Phillip Morris'
R. 1h 38m. By Stephen Holden. Dec. 2, 2010. Jim Carrey's portrayal of Steven Russell, a notorious real-life con man now serving a 144-year sentence in a Texas prison, hot-wires "I Love You ...
Movie Review
I Love You Phillip Morris. Director: John Requa, Glenn Ficarra. Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance. Running Time: 98 minutes. Rated R for sexual content including strong dialogue and language. With: Jim ...
I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris Reviews. With a solid script and daring performances, the film is enjoyable and will inevitably become a cult classic in spite of some of its uneven gags. [Full review in ...
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS Movie Review
Published Dec 3, 2010. Matt's review of I Love You Phillip Morris. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the film stars Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, and Leslie Mann. "Be yourself," is a quaint ...
I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
By-TorX-1 8 April 2010. I Love You Philip Morris is a film that has a clear sense of warmth and is supported by superb performances. In terms of narrative, it is a romp, but one that takes some surprising (if not dark) turns. The film is not lightweight and tells the story of an inveterate conman.
Film Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
This fast life leads to the pokey, where he falls for a delicate fellow con, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). They truly spark, and complement each other. In jail and out, the twosome attempt a ...
I Love You Phillip Morris Review
I Love You Phillip Morris begins with a shot of an emaciated Jim Carrey, lying on a gurney, pining for death in a plaintive voiceover. For those of us who have endured Carrey's attempts at ...
I Love You Phillip Morris
Dec 5, 2010. I Love You Phillip Morris not only blasts gay stereotypes back decades, it could actually make people wish for a third "Ace Ventura" movie. Both of those are an accomplishment, though neither is a compliment. By Joe Neumaier FULL REVIEW. See All 32 Critic Reviews.
I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
I Love You Phillip Morris: Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. With Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro. A cop turns con man once he comes out of the closet. Once imprisoned, he meets the second love of his life, whom he'll stop at nothing to be with.
You review: I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris centres on Russell's journey from happily married Virginian family man and regular churchgoer to the notorious, openly gay prisoner currently serving a 144-year life ...
Movie Review: I Love You, Philip Morris
Cert: 15, 1hr 40 mins Starring: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor When promoting I Love You, Philip Morris at the Sundance Film Festival last year, Jim Carrey was keen to point out that the film - one ...
I Love You Phillip Morris
Movie Review "Love sure is a funny thing," Steven Russell drawls in a voiceover as he lies dying on a hospital gurney at the outset of I Love You Phillip Morris. "It makes you happy. It makes you sad. ... I Love You Phillip Morris chronicles the unlikely real-life odyssey of one Steven Russell. Ten minutes into it, we come to realize that ...
I Love You Phillip Morris review
Enter I Love You Phillip Morris, which crosses between both and has thus had a troubled path to cinemas. Indeed, at one stage it looked likely that the film would go straight to DVD. The subject ...
Movie review: 'I Love You Phillip Morris'
Beyond the stereotypes and clichés — Steven and Jimmy have matching Chihuahuas, Steven and Phillip have matching cars — the movie doesn't really have much to say about being gay, being in ...
I Love You Phillip Morris Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 2 ): Kids say ( 4 ): Loopy, frenetic, sometimes annoying, but impressively inventive, this film should be re-titled What I Did for Love -- because that's exactly what it's about. The movie showcases Carrey at his zany best (minus the excessive facial tics).
I Love You Phillip Morris
I Love You Phillip Morris is a 2009 English-language French black comedy film based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey.While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times to be ...
Movie Review: I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
Movie Review: I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) December 3, 2010. ... I Love You Phillip Morris opens with Steven pulling off a series of stunts that land him in the slammer. After his time inside ...
Movie Review of 'I Love You Phillip Morris' (2010)
Thus begins a whirlwind love affair both in and out of prison, with Russell's inability to avoid crime continuously affecting their relationship. The truly original, unique I Love You Phillip Morris denotes the directorial debut for Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who wrote such motion pictures as Bad Santa and Bad News Bears.
"I Love You Phillip Morris" (2009) (Movie Review with Spoilers)
"I Love You Phillip Morris" is a comedy/drama film based on the real life of a con artist named Steven Jay Russell. The film stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGreg...
Movie Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
The rest of the movie follows their dysfunctional love story through prison sentences, Corvettes, illnesses, mansions, and tribulations. The story is part Catch Me If You Can, part The Informant!, and part Get Real. Between bright spots in which Carrey showcases genuine emotion, the story cruises along at a jerky trot, sometimes comical and sometimes just a misstep away.
I Love You Phillip Morris Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon
Yes, I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The movie follows Steven Jay Russell who leads an unsatisfactory married life. After an accident, he ...
I Love You Phillip Morris Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via ...
Yes, I Love You Phillip Morris is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The movie follows Steven Jay Russell who leads an unsatisfactory married life. After an accident, he ...
I Love You Phillip Morris Review
The movie's title refers to Phillip Morris, and while McGregor is fine in the role as a sweet, almost unrealistically innocent naif, it's Carrey we follow throughout, with the comedian enjoying a dream role that allows him to combine his old-school comedic box of tricks — the pratfalls, the sweaty, manic intensity and even the odd rubber ...

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