Based on Steven McVicker’s nonfiction book, “I Love You Phillip Morris” offers a fulfilling, exciting variation on the con movie format: Can a conman drop the act and become himself?
The movie centers on Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), who when we meet him is as square and bland as unbuttered toast. He’s a churchgoing, happily married cop in Virginia Beach. But a car accident compels Steven to live life his way. He announces his homosexuality, leaves his family, and moves to Miami, where he storms out of the closet with a fabulous vengeance.
There’s just a slight problem. “Being gay,” Steven tells us, “is really expensive.” With career options limited, he starts committing insurance and credit card fraud. When the cops come for him at work, a petrified Steven’s escape plan concludes with a botched jump from a hospital roof. It won’t be the last time Steven gets arrested. And it won’t be the last time he doesn’t go quietly.
In prison, Steven falls in love with Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a blond, blue-eyed Southern dandy. Steven is enchanted by Phillip’s adorable innocence, and Phillip loves Steven’s selflessness. But their love is built on an ever-growing pile of lies and deceit, which makes having a normal relationship a constant, painful struggle.
The great pleasure of watching “I Love You Phillip Morris” is that first-time directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (the writers of “Bad Santa”) don’t celebrate Steven’s abilities. He’s portrayed as a pathetic soul so immersed in lies that he can’t understand how he could hurt Phillip. By working on a bigger, more profitable fib (meet your new CFO!), Steven believes he’s being a good provider. Carrey doesn’t regurgitate his usual rubber-faced antics. He dials it back so that you see Steven Russell’s struggle, not Steven Russell’s struggle as interpreted by Jim Carrey, Movie Star. As Phillip, McGregor delivers a heartbreaking performance. He’s delicate, too trusting, and forever loving. Those traits place him directly in Steven’s path of destruction. But without Steven’s protection, Phillip is easy prey.
Ficarra and Requa’s biggest attribute as filmmakers is staying out of the story’s way. As writers, their biggest asset, aside from their bitter humor, is to make Steven, the narrator, unreliable. The story stops and starts and contains at least once crucial scene that is probably flat-out false. It’s an unabashedly deceptive movie, which makes it constantly entertaining and a little sad. Steven Russell has managed to con himself.
Rating: W W W W
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