I Love You Phillip Morris is based on a true story from the book by Steve McVicker. The words, “This really happened… It really did.” appear on the screen at the beginning. The facts presented here are bizarre enough that if this were a fabricated story no one would think it was possible. It proves that oft repeated adage that truth is stranger than fiction.
Jim Carrey stars as Steven Russell. He provides a helpful voice-over narration ala Sunset Boulevard or American Beauty. Only this narrator isn’t dead, he is merely dying. He tells about being adopted as a child, about his wife and daughter and his job as a cop. After a near fatal car accident Steven comes out of the closet, leaves his wife and job behind, gets a boyfriend and moves to Florida from Georgia.
To support the extravagant lifestyle he desires Steven commits bank fraud and is sent to prison where he meets and falls in love with the title character (Ewan McGregor with a gentle southern drawl). After experiencing several incarcerated adventures they get released and begin a life together in Texas. Steven has an amazing career which includes litigating in court and being the CFO of a large company. He does all this without the benefit of schooling or previous experience; but simply by bullshitting his way through.
Russell, unable to kick his illegal habits, eventually winds up back in prison where he perpetrates his most amazing fraud, which I won’t give away.
Jim Carrey and Ewen McGregor are both wonderful as these memorable real-life characters. Carrey shows Russell’s confident veneer as a mask for his deeper insecurities. McGregor plays Phillip Morris as a trusting, doe-eyed, sensitive gay man. Russell finds unconditional love in Morris and someone he can protect and provide for. Morris believes that in Russell he has finally found a man he can trust to not take advantage of his naiveté. Together they create an unusual but rather sweet screen romance.
It starts off promising enough as a whimsical breezy little comedy. Unfortunately the tone grows more uneven as the movie goes along. Awkward dramatic bits are inserted that take away from the humor and slow the story down. An incredulous “plot twist” redeems the movie a little by restoring its sense of the absurd, but the ending does not inspire happiness.
I Love You Phillip Morris is an uneven comedy that presents an unusual true love story.
