He's meant to be a fool for love, but mostly he's just bonkers.
An oddball hybrid, the movie aspires to be a dark comedy, sensual romance, true crime account and con-artist thriller. Its most lasting image, however, may be of Carrey in fishnets.
Directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who wrote the wickedly hilarious Bad Santa, assume a mocking tone that falls flat. They aspire for a cleverly offbeat vibe, but it feels forced and calculated.
Carrey seems as if he's playing Carrey playing the role of a gay man. In other words, his portrayal comes off as insincere. We know Carrey is capable of embodying a complex character after his superb turns in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man in the Moon. But here, he plays his supposedly charismatic con man in one rather off-tune note.
Though there are some funny lines, the saga — based on a true story — comes off far-fetched, growing less credible as the movie unspools.
Carrey plays Steven, a married father and small-town Georgia police officer whose near-fatal car accident leads to an epiphany. He decides to come out of the closet and live proudly as the gay man he knows he is.
One of the best segments comes after he makes this decision. The setting switches to Florida, where we see Steven jauntily walking a pair of small dogs beside his handsome boyfriend, Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro), to the strains of Latin-infused music. He's happy, perhaps for the first time, knows all the hot spots and spends lavishly. "I bought anything that caught my eye," Carrey says in the voiceover. And though he has a good job, it's not enough to subsidize his lifestyle: "No one ever talks about this, but being gay is really expensive."
Lacking a college education, he chooses a life of crime. In short time, he's behind bars. That's where the real story begins.
In prison, Steven haunts the law library, learning about legalities and how to skirt them. It also is where he meets the love of his life, Phillip (an appealingly low-key Ewan McGregor).
Prison life looks downright tame. The prisoners' canary-yellow uniforms are always pressed and spotless, and prison riots look like playground scuffles. Within these stylized, silly confines, we're supposed to believe that Phillip and Steven fall seriously in love. Instead, it's as if McGregor and Carrey are in different movies. McGregor plays his sweet-natured, fragile Phillip with as much depth as the character allows and Carrey is all rubber face and zany smiles. It's not that a gay love story need be as weighty as Brokeback Mountain, but it should have believable chemistry. There was a more convincing connection in the short-lived bond between Steven and Jimmy.
The con-artist scenes are giddy, but lifeless. Maybe this is because it's hard to care about a protagonist who is so narcissistic and sociopathic, however passionate he may be.
Steven muses about his lifelong tendency to hide. The heart, soul and wit of this story seem hidden under its overarching effort to be edgy and weird.
I Love You Phillip Morris
* 1/2 out of four
Stars:
Leslie Mann
Directors:
Distributor:
Rating:
including strong dialogue and language
Running time:
Opens Friday in Los Angeles,
New York and San Francisco
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