Some Hollywood love stories just seem too good to be true. “I Love You Phillip Morris” seems way too good to be true, and yet somehow it is, but hardly in the cliché way one might expect from, well, Hollywood.
Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is a man devoid of any identity but a pro at performing the expectations of society whenever the mood strikes him. As a child, he was adopted and became an upstanding poster boy. As an adult, Steven’s a cop and a model citizen living the American dream with a wife and kids. Following a car accident, he reveals he’s gay, but more accurately, flamboyantly gay, going as far as committing credit fraud to live a perfect life of fashionable luxury. And in prison, Steven’s the perfect cellmate laying down the rules of the yard and encouraging the sexual favors.
Yet with no personality to fall back on, Steven’s cheerful demeanor and everything that comes out of it is a lie. He means no ill will, so it’s impossible to dislike him, but if you’re going to be a fraud, why not be a fraud in the biggest way possible?
His coup-de-gras comes in the form of the blue eyes and blonde hair of Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). The pair fall in love instantly, and Steven’s greatest role is being Phillip’s ideal mate. Steven poses as a lawyer to get him out of prison and then fakes a resume to get a CFO job laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I Love You Phillip Morris” has enough plot twists and character developments for seven movies, but the increasingly absurd details (all of which are apparently accurate of a con-man now serving an embarrassingly long life sentence) and the bubbly tone accompanying them all are part of the fun. Likewise, the film’s delicate pacing lingers on all of Steven’s personas equally, so the comedy and the surprises are abrupt, not madcap.
Jim Carrey is enigmatic in the role. How deliciously deceptive he is at all moments, flitting back and forth between personalities and choices without ever losing our trust or patience. Carrey sells the role to us as winningly as Steven does to others.
Joint directors and screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have made a delightfully preposterous biopic out of a potentially depressing, twisted or simply un-filmable true story. It’s an achingly original screwball comedy I simply fell in love with.
3 ½ stars