Blu-Ray Review: Jim Carrey Shines in ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’

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CHICAGO – With all the creatively bankrupt, audience-repelling dreck clogging up theaters these days, it’s easy to see why a comedian would sign up for a challenging art house satire rather than pick up a fat, unearned pay check. Robin Williams delivered his best work in years in Bobcat Goldthwait’s “World’s Greatest Dad,” and now Jim Carrey adds to his streak of woefully underrated performances in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s “I Love You Phillip Morris.”

First-time directors Ficarra and Requa may hardly seem like art house material, especially after helming the scripts for pictures such as “Bad Santa” and “Cats & Dogs.” Yet after a long delay, “Phillip Morris” was relegated to an extremely limited theatrical release, primarily for its decidedly risqué and uncommercial subject matter. In other words, the story is a gay romance that doesn’t portray its characters in a tragic light. The film is a flat-out comedy, which seems to be a more controversial genre for gay characters to headline in America. Hopefully the mainstream embracement of same sex couplings on TV shows like “Glee” will lead studios to realize that there is indeed a wide audience for movies featuring people with all types of orientations. 

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

While various Oscar bait pictures from last year dealt with meticulous escapes from prison, “Phillip Morris” outdoes them all in terms of sheer ingenuity and entertainment value. It may very well be Carrey’s funniest film since “Liar Liar,” and fans of that picture will be pleased to see the rubber-faced star momentarily inhabiting a courtroom once again. Yet perhaps no supernatural affliction could’ve ceased Steven Russell’s innate compulsion to deceive the world. Based on an astonishing true story chronicled in Steve McVicker’s book of the same name, “Phillip Morris” has nothing to do with the cigarette manufacturer and everything to do with Russell (Carrey), a brilliant con man who excelled at getting hired for jobs he wasn’t the least bit qualified for. He would proceed to rob his employers until he got caught, thus inspiring him to find endless different ways to sneak out of prison. Since the deeply flawed justice system in Texas provided Russell with ample opportunities to bribe his way through the big house, the state is arguably complicit in the record number of crimes committed by this master escape artist. Yes, Russell engaged in an obscene amount of illegal behavior, yet his offenses seem positively negligible in an era overrun with corporate corruption.

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s I Love You Phillip Morris.
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s I Love You Phillip Morris.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

There are a great many surprises in store for viewers unfamiliar with this tale (the less known about it beforehand, the better). Since there’s no nudity, graphic sex or mean-spirited vulgarity in the picture, it’s easy to wonder what all the fuss was about. Instead, we have a tenderly observed love story that blooms between Russell and fellow inmate Phillip Morris, wonderfully played by Ewan McGregor. The two men share a disarming chemistry that brings genuine heart to a film that could’ve easily just been a “Catch Me If You Can”-style lark. Russell’s tireless creative drive is a perfect fit for Carrey’s manic energy, though the actor is also equally convincing in scenes that require him to be genuinely emotional. Instead of ad-libbing through his role (as he did in the underwhelming “Fun With Dick and Jane”), Carrey truly disappears into the chameleon-like skin of his character, which is perhaps the most difficult task for an instantly recognizable movie star to achieve. His sexuality is merely one aspect of his character, and Carrey refuses to delve into the campy waters of comic caricature. Unfortunately, the script’s psychoanalysis of Russell is a tad shallow, blaming his hang-ups solely on the disillusionment he experienced as a child after discovering that his mother gave him up for adoption as a newborn. It’s also unclear when and how Russell managed to dupe prison officials so many times, since the majority of his escapes are confined to a muddled montage in the third act. Regardless of these quibbles, “Phillip Morris” has enough hugely funny and genuinely touching moments to prove that it was more than worth the wait.

I Love You Phillip Morris was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 5, 2011.
I Love You Phillip Morris was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 5, 2011.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

“I Love You Philip Morris” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio), and includes a lively commentary from Ficarra and Requa, who are joined by producers Andrew Lazar and Far Shariat; chief lighting technician Max Pomperleau and cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet. The filmmakers share the multiple ways in which they intended to con the audience through visual sleight of hand and seemingly throwaway details. They also highlight the moments in the film that are taken entirely from fact, such as the story of how Russell’s birth mother traded him for a paltry amount of money in a hospital parking lot. Carrey’s fearless pursuit of a laugh caused him to perform many of his own stunts, even after cracking his rib on the set of “Yes Men.”

Since the writer-directors were straight, they welcomed the assistance of gay crew members to help make the film’s depiction of Russell’s lifestyle as authentic as possible (the wardrobe coordinator ended up casting the extras for sequences set in a gay bar). When McGregor got his ear pierced in a Method attempt at getting into character, he was informed by people onset that he had pierced the “straight ear.” A high school doubled as two different police stations, while a few memorable props were found at key locations, such as a toilet paper holder that doubled as a radio. Ficarra and Requa admit that the moments in the film they found funniest were the ones that failed to make audiences laugh at festival screenings. French audiences couldn’t understand why Russell was imprisoned for embezzling money from his company, and suggested that he should’ve been hired by the FBI.
 
When Gus Van Sant was originally attached to the direct the project, he had intended to cut out a 15-page flashback detailing an escape Russell made to visit his dying lover, Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro). This scene was meant to explain Russell’s motivation for pursuing his subsequent relationship with Morris so fervently. As it stands in the final cut, it’s unclear where the flashback fits into the timeline of Russell’s incarceration. Yet the disc’s 17 minutes of deleted scenes include the entire sequence, and it turns out to be a heartbreaker. Carrey and Santoro deliver riveting performances that would’ve given the film more dramatic mileage, while fully fleshing out the main character’s predicament. Plus, it offers a better placement for the sight gag in which Russell leaves prison while wearing a rather revealing (and truly hilarious) outfit. The brief making-of featurette unfortunately doesn’t include any interviews with the real-life subjects, though it does feature some amusing outtakes, such as when Carrey accidentally refers to himself as Philip Morris (how about a full-fledged Jimprov reel?). The star says he’s been waiting for the Hal Ashby of his generation to come along, and he just might have found him in the team of Ficarra and Requa. I would absolutely love to see these three work together again.

‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ is released by Lionsgate Entertainment and stars Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Antoni Corone and Brennan Brown. It was written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It was released on April 5, 2011. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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