I Love You Phillip Morris

When a movie pushes your preconceptions out of the window, surprises you, enlightens you and on top of that it entertains you, you have a great movie. "I Love You Phillip Morris" is that kind of great movie. Daring, fresh, moving and funny. Jim Carrey, this time, takes us for an unusual ride and I was part of it before I knew what hit me. I think this is Jim Carrey's best performance and made me wonder what other surprises he has up his sleeve. The love that blooms in jail between Carrey's character and Phillip Morris - a sensational performance by Ewan MGregor - is so profoundly vivid that I was taken by their own strangely innocent affair and went with them all the way. I found myself tearing up and rooting by this two winning misfits. I will recommend you to push your own preconceptions out of the window and have a great time at the movies.

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.

I Love You Philip Morris is a great movie to watch if your a fan of Jim Carrey's dramatic work! Jim Carrey gives a great performance in this and he has great chemistry with Ewan McGregor, who also gives a great performance in the movie! The movie also has great writing, directing, and keeps you hooked throughout the movie. The movie does have a few problems, but this is still a great movie to watch, and I recommend this movie to anyone who are fans of Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.

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!

Continuing my MIFF reviews, I saw this last week with a packed house at Greater Union.

Firstly, it has to be said that it's a tragedy that this film's general release has been such a stifled process. The entertainment value of this picture, its expert construction and superb performances cannot be denied.

Carrey turns in what is possibly his best performance in a decade. It's bizarre, the way that his signature antics actually enhance rather than diminish the dramatic aspects of this film, based loosely on real life events. In fact, for me, the movie trumps The Truman Show as Carrey's true coming of age as a performer of depth. Ewan McGregor is equally astonishing as Phillip Morris - you'd swear you were watching the kind of unique romantic chemistry between two actors that arrives very rarely in cinema, and virtually never between two A-listers playing gay lovers; but the love story is only a foundation for what emerges as a kinetic, superbly told comedy-drama about the real life exploits of con man and recidivist prison escapee Steven Jay Russell.

Directors/writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa expertly handle the tensions of comic and dramatic performance and also prove to have a masterly touch with the frenzied action sequences. Bit parts are cast beautifully. You can see the attention to detail and craft in this movie.

It can only be assumed that the gay context of this film has cost it it's commercial potential in the eyes of distributors, because everything else about it spells box office success. Apparently, it will finally have a limited release in the US in October this year, with the potential of expansion.

Without spoiling any of the twists of the film's detailed series of events, the film succeeds at beautifully hijacking audience expectation time and again. Just when you think you've got the film pinned for being predictable, suddenly it flips on you with a wry smile as if to say, "I knew what you were thinking".

I'm not sure how close the producers stuck to the facts, but it scarcely matters. If 5% of this narrative is true, it would be amazing in itself. I would be happy if the film was complete fiction.

It's a wonderful, assured comedy and deserves wide commercial exploitation.