I Love You Phillip Morris, 15, 95 mins
Cast: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro Writer-directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa Genre: comedy Rating: **** (out of five)
JIM Carrey delivers his best dramatic performance since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this improbable and utterly incredible true story.
Based on a novel by investigative reporter Steve McVicker, it charts the romance of two prison inmates and their subsequent journey of self-discovery on both sides of the bars.
The writer-directors strike a pleasing balance between laughter and soul-searching in this oddball comedy.
Crucially, Carrey generates smouldering screen chemistry with co-star Ewan McGregor, convincing us that undying love and a daredevil spirit can overcome anything.
Truth is far, far stranger than this entertaining fiction, which takes dramatic licence with dialogue and abbreviates the exploits of Carrey's white collar criminal during the 1980s and 1990s. He escaped incarceration four times and has paid a terrible price for humiliating the US prison service.
The real Stephen Russell was handed a 144-year sentence and must spend 23 hours a day confined to his cell without visitors. That's no laughing matter.
When we first meet Stephen (Carrey), he is a happily married copper with a beautiful wife (Mann) and young daughter.
However, the family man has a secret: he is gay.
When he can no longer keep the secret, he comes out to his wife and moves to Florida with his boyfriend (Santoro).
The cost of living fabulously is perilously high, and Stephen breaks the law to finance his lavish tastes.
The authorities eventually catch up with the swindler and sentence him to time in prison where he meets softly spoken Phillip (McGregor).
The attraction is instant, and Stephen schemes to become his lover's cellmate.
When he finally gains parole, Stephen poses as a lawyer to get Phillip out of prison early, but once they are united on the outside, the former conman struggles to mend his ways.
Phillip lands a high-profile position as chief financial officer at a large corporation, where the temptation to embezzle is irresistible.
When the police inevitably come for their man, Phillip is distraught: "I don't care about the money," he pleads, "All I want is you. I just want us to be together."
I Love You Phillip Morris is sweet, sexy and at times hilarious.
Carrey keeps his usual nervous tics and funny voices in check and the rapport with McGregor, sporting a southern accent and cropped blond hair, anchors the picture.
Ficarra and Requa treat the characters with affection and don't shy away from the physicality of Stephen and Phillip's relationship, creating a wonderfully odd couple.
We believe in the characters and root for them, even though we know that everything Phillip says and does is for his own financial and emotional gain.
It's at the Futurist.
PA
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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