I Love You Phillip Morris

Held up for over a year because no one could decide if the damn thing was too gay for public consumption, I Love You Phillip Morris finally sees the light of day. OK, the movie, written and directed by John Requa and Glen Ficara of Bad Santa fame, is all over the place. But it’s also outrageously funny. Jim Carrey swans around making nutso magic as Steven Russell, a Texas police officer who realizes he is gay, starts cruising rough trade, becomes a con man and ends up in jail where he slow dances to Johnny Mathis with inmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a bottle blond bottom in for grand theft auto. They fall hard for one another and Stephen schemes to spring them both from the slammer. It’s more complicated than that, but who has the time? So begins a series of escapes, disguises and reunions that defy belief. Stop fighting it. I Love You Phillip Morris is based on fact. Career criminal Stephen is currently serving a 144-year sentence. It’s one crazy love story, but Carrey and McGregor make it work by making us buy the romance as the real thing. There’s something about these Marys that pulls you in.

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