I Love You Phillip Morris

It's more unique than rare that a film affects me this much. The center, the emotional center of Phillip Morris has entered my subconscious in a way that I can't quite describe. It changed my perception of things. This is the first time I see two men kissing that made complete sense. I believe and understood like never before the "normalness" of the feeling. I liked "Brokeback Mountain" too but in that case, the torturous path of self-loathing that the Heath Ledger character goes trough, kept me at the periphery of the story like a sympathetic, moved spectator. Here I was part of it, of them. I'm sure Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor have a lot to do with it. No cheap shots, no low comedy. They are so true that you can't help loving them and rooting for them, flaws and all. I predict "I Love You Phillip Morris" will become the sleeper of 2009.

Just when I thought Jim Carrey couldn't surprise me anymore, even if he tried...bang! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Here Jim Carrey creates the most complex and complete character of his career. A bisexual co-man of all things. An amoral guy who finds love and when I say "finds" we see him finding it. The romantic entanglement of Carrey and McGregor is a real first because we, even the ones who don't quite get the same sex thing, gets it. I saw the love between this two men and I believed it. "Brokeback Mountain" was easier to believe because the tragedy filled with deceit and self loathing fit perfectly with what I, and many others I suspect, believe that kind of union may involve. Here I saw romance in Ewan McGregor's eyes. His disbelief that somebody loves him is out of "The Nights Of Cabiria" - I will certainly see this again.

I'd never heard of this movie. Or the story behind it. And, I gotta say, never been a big fan of Carey, TBH, though I have seen most of his films. I kinda think this is his best work. Certainly up there in the top three.

Same for McGregor, whom I do like, but often seems like he takes himself too seriously (sorta the "ac-TOR" type, mebbe..). But this work is understated, 'real', wonderfully shy and fun to watch all around.

I liked it!

I was very lucky to see a screening of this movie just recently, and I honestly though that this would be horrible. I loved Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and Dumb and Dumber, but that's really all about it. However, his latest film makes a mark on easily one of the best films of the decade. It's not the comedy itself that makes it memorable, it's the characters and the story that really makes this film a very enjoyable pleasure.

Loved every minute of it, thoroughly entertaining, actually very funny, and very sincere at the same time. It has a lot of flaws and not much detail, but with the addition the story being true just really does make it a remarkable film in the movie industry, as well as in Jim Carrey and Evan's career. A truly deserving 4 stars.

Surprisingly, I never expected to like this film as much as I have intended, since I viewed this film as a flunk. The film was just well executed, well paced, and not presenting anything unnecessary. The story is pretty interesting and it sticks to what needs to be told. There were never any moment in the film that took a detour, as it stayed on focus on what this film was about; every scene mattered and nothing was put into waste. I do not know how much of this was real or if Russell did everything for a gay lover, but the film does a good job of explaining and depicting the infamous prison escapee and portraying his intelligence. It was actually quite fun to watch as you follow the character falling in love and fooling around him, in order to get the things that he wants.

There are not as much exploitations as you see in "Milk," but do expect at least few gay sex scenes. Despite the exploitations, I really liked how the director didn't overuse scenes that involved the gay couple because it really would have ruined the film for me. Adding these scenes in various parts of the film, really feels like the film wants to be funny by adding potty humor. You will only see less than a few of these scenes, one is quite exploitive, by the way; however, the director didn't focus on adding more of these scenes, only focusing on what needed to be portrayed on the film.

This is categorized as a comedy, but I will say that don't expect for some non-stop laughter. Not everything that you see is laugh out loud funny, but it is comedy that you can watch and actually enjoy without having some non-stop laughter. Personally, the only comedy that I found laughable was watching how Steve Russell, portrayed by Jim Carrey, escapes from prisons numerous of times. The real Steve Russell is known for being the Houdini of prison escaping and you see why he received that nickname. It is very comical to see all of these escape routines that Russell will do and you will see something different in every escape attempt. Each one of his escapes were well-thought, smart, and unique as you see a different escape attempt each time and will never see the same attempt used again.

You have a small cast for this film and I thought everyone was pretty good in their roles. Ewan McGreggor was actually good as I never expected him to even consider to portray a character in this type of film; he is not a bad actor and was good as Russell's gay lover. Now, the person who did steal the show was Jim Carrey. This is not the Jim Carrey that you have seen in his 90's comedy flicks, but this is Jim Carrey acting and using his talent that made him famous, to portray the character. You'll see that Russell is a smart character and have succeed in multiple prison escapes and Carrey was great as the role. I thought to myself that Jim Carrey was near perfect for this film because of the characteristics of his character. You have to have a character that is capable of fooling people by being able to do countless of voices, impersonations, and doing the impossible, in order to escape; what better actor than Carrey to take on this role..

This film is definitely not in the same level of funny as you see in "The Hangover," but watching these numerous escape routines and watching Russell fooling the people around him brings in some humor. A good cast , great performance by Carrey, a decent storyline that was executed quite well, and a smart character that was able to escape countless of times, made this film surprisingly enjoyable.