Saturday, December 04, 2010

I Love Like You Phillip Morris

Picture 12Jim Carrey adds a little swish to his familiar physical dexterity as con-man Steven Russell in I Love You Phillip Morris. His rubber face sad-comic mask falls hard for mild-mannered Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), while both are in prison. Their affair prompts much elaborate scheming from Steven about how to bust them out.

The film's strange and gleefully offensive comic tone comes courtesy of the Bad Santa screenwriters but this time they serve it up with a fey twist. The politically incorrect gay humor is incongruously combined with genuine sincerity and even sweetness. You don't cast the dependably adorable McGregor if you're not willing to spike your booze with a little punch...

Read the rest at my weekly column @ Towleroad
(There's a couple more notes on Black Swan, too.)
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5 comments:

adam k. said...

This is unrelated, but so glad that you loved The Fighter! It looked soooo generic in the trailer, from what I remember. I guess that didn't do it justice. I'm excited now.

Paul Outlaw said...

Rosemary's Baby, fo sho.

Bailey said...

I saw it on an Air France flight this summer. It was cute, a lot better than I thought it would be, and might have even been good, but definitely only 'great' under the loosened standards of 'gay movies,' if you know what I mean.

Ewan McGregor is adorable as always, and while I didn't find Jim Carrey to be 'lovable,' he was somewhat more tolerable than usual. I remember liking the soundtrack and musical cues more than anything. I'm not sure that's a good sign.

Ruth said...

I've been so looking forward to this film - I think it was playing at Mebourne International Film Festival but I didn't go this year (worst mistake of my life!!) - oh well, it looks like it'll be here in 2011 :( ...just like Black Swan...and Tangled...

lawyer tony fernando said...

I watched LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS last january here in Brazil and it´s such a strange movie, it´s not a great comedy, it´s to gay to be mainstream and the drama bits R kind of odd. Ewan and Rodrigo are amazing on it and Carrey has his moments