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I Love You Phillip Morris
4/5
dir-scr Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
prd Andrew Lazar, Far Shariat
with Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Brennan Brown, Douglas M Griffin, Tommy Davis, Nicholas Alexander, Annie Golden, Beth Burvant, Marylouise Burke, Michael Showers
release UK 19.Mar.10, US 3.Dec.10
09/US Europa 1h42
I Love You Phillip Morris
Soul/cell mates: McGregor and Carrey

mann santoro
SUNDANCE FILM FEST
CANNES FILM FEST
R E V I E W    B Y    R I C H    C L I N E
I Love You Phillip Morris Ficarra and Requa move into the director's chair for a true story that frankly could only have been adapted by the writers of Bad Santa. And by refusing to play to the cliches, they've made a film that defies categorisation.

Steven (Carrey) is a pillar of society with a wife (Mann) and family who one day has an epiphany: he can now be himself, a gay man who doesn't follow the rules. He uses brainy, charming bravado to con his way to wealth, which lands him in prison. This is where he meets nice-guy Phillip (McGregor), the love of his life. So Steven launches a series of increasingly elaborate scams to get Phillip released and then to escape from prison himself so they can be together.

Actually, the word "elaborate" barely describes the things Steven does. This is one of those stories that could only be true, because on-screen it seems completely unbelievable. Meanwhile, Ficarra and Requa continually subvert our expectations with playful dialog, witty sight-gags and droll editing, turning this story into a sunny comedy with a shadowy undercurrent of jagged humour. For example, Steven and Phillip's big romantic moment takes place while there's a riot in the next cell.

Carrey and McGregor dive in completely to the characters, mixing broad slapstick with more introspective moments. The script kind of hedges around the details of the characters, which is rather appropriate in a film about a conman, although it also leaves it feeling strangely cold. For example, it's never clear that Steven justifies stealing all this money to get even with the insurance company that let another boyfriend (played by Santoro) die of Aids without the treatment he needed. Which is what really happened.

That said, it's refreshing to see an outrageously entertaining story like this in which the fact that the central characters are gay is never the point (although you could also argue that, thematically, it's the only point). This is simply a never-sentimentalised story about two people trying to be together against the odds and the lengths one of them goes simply to be in a room together. And beneath all of the wackiness, these are real people we can vividly identify with.

cert 15 themes, language, some sexuality 16.Dec.09

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© 2010 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
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