I Love You Philip Morris

It can't be said that Jim Carrey is afraid of stretching his talents. This quasi-comedic indie flick features the actor combining his comedy skills with a brave, open-hearted performance to depict Steven Russell, a highly-intelligent southern conman in search of an identity. I Love You Philip Morris is directed by the writing team behind Bad Santa, and whilst this film shares a similarly black vein of humour and a willingness to embrace the taboos of western society, it's less an out-and-out comedy due to the fact that it's based on an amazingly unbelievable true story. Made in 2009, it didn't actually get a cinematic release in any English-speaking countries until late 2010 due to a lack of distributor interest. This isn't unusual in itself, but in this case it's unusual because it happens to be a brilliant and entertaining film.



Steven Russell is a happily-married police officer who has a near-death experience in a car accident one day. He has a kind of epiphany as a result and decides to embrace his homosexuality, moving to Miami to live the life of a flamboyant gay man. He turns to fraud and con-artistry to support his lifestyle, and this leads him to prison - a place ideally suited to his unique talents as a hustler. He meets Philip Morris (Ewen McGregor) and falls head over heels in love. Upon their release from prison, Steven begins posing as a lawyer to make money. From here on in, Steven's skills of deception grow exponentially.



There isn't much I can say about this film without spoiling it too much, it's just one of those amazing true stories. The real life Steven Russell holds some kind of record for prison-escapes - all of which he achieved non-violently and through the power of his unassuming intellect. The nature of this story (prison romances on film are few and far between) allows for the director-writer team to heavily mine it for dark laughs. The film is full of brilliant contrasts... one scene shows Philip and Steven snuggled up in prison watching an old movie, and the camera then pans across to show a sex offender having his way with himself. There's also a running motif of divine observation, possibly suggesting that only a higher power can truly judge Steven's actions. The person Steven hurts the most is certainly himself... at the core of the film are his indentity crises, a search for acceptance that allows him to continuously adapt or hide his true self, but his single-minded pursuit of what he perceives to be happiness will eventually cost him almost everything.



Carrey completely owns this film. There are touches of The Truman Show in his performance, only here he plays the flipside - the conner rather than the connee. He's naturally funny enough to make the more outlandish comedy sequences work without it feeling like a betrayal of the character or the film. Non-Carrey fans can relax, he doesn't do any of his rubber face stuff... he knows how to be funny in other ways, and he brings a bittersweet earnestness and an almost paradoxical innocence to his role. McGregor is suitably sensitive in the less-showy role of Philip, affecting a southern accent more than a little remniscent of Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire, and between this and Carrey's performance you'll believe in their tumultuous relationship.



Unfortunately, the fact that this film remained unreleased for such a long time is a worrying sign that our society is still very much subject to open displays of discrimination when it comes to homosexuality. It seems that if gay-themed films don't have a tragic, politicised subtext then they won't be embraced enough by the film community to overcome the industry's prejudices. It's all well and good for films like Milk, Brokeback Mountain and A Single Man to break down the boundaries and attract high-minded plaudits, but when a genuinely funny and highly-engaging film like I Love You Philip Morris comes along (complete with A-list cast) and sits on the shelf for nearly two years before seeing cinematic release, it's a clear indication that the anti-homophobe PC brigade doesn't understand just how damaging it can be when they continue to weight their support in favour of stereotypically serious and downbeat gay films.



This is a film that deserves your support and attention, go see it and be amazed. It's just a really good film.



DIRECTOR: Glen Ficarra, John Requa

WRITER/SOURCE: Glen Ficarra and John Requa, adapted from the autobiography of Steven McVicker.

KEY ACTORS: Jim Carrey, Ewen McGregor, Leslie Mann



RELATED TEXTS:

- The memoirs of Steven McVicker, I Love You Philip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love and Prison Breaks.

- This film can be seen as a nice companion piece to Carrey's previous too-true-to-believe biopic, The Man on the Moon.

- The creative team previously wrote the film Bad Santa and 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears.