I Love You Phillip Morris

Policeman, husband, father, closeted gay man, out gay man, fraudster, prison escapee, fake lawyer, embezzler, prison escapee (again)… Georgia’s Steven Russell has led quite a life. He’s a subject ripe for documentary treatment, but it’s understandable why ‘Bad Santa’ writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have turned his wild CV into madcap comedy for their directing debut. Unleashing Jim Carrey makes a sort of sense, since his fast-talking energy might help us buy Russell’s credibility-defying exploits. Unfortunately, though, the bizarre true-life aspect gets swamped by Carrey’s ramped-up zeal, delivering a series of showpiece flourishes which dazzle at first but then prove wearing.

Still, you can’t accuse cast or filmmakers of lacking caution, since the treatment barrels through locations and chronology, and it’s eyebrow-raising to have Carrey and Ewan McGregor – as sweet-natured fellow jailbird Phillip Morris – playing frisky gay lovers. Such forthrightness definitely makes the movie culturally significant (and may explain why US distributors have been reluctant to handle it), yet for all that it never manages to match its robust humour with a convincing love story. Maybe we don’t quite buy Jim and Ewan’s hots for one another, maybe the writing makes Carrey’s character too much of a psychotic narcissist while rendering McGregor in terms of fluffy-bunny passivity, but either way it just ain’t happening. Loved the chutzpah, but the heart and the funny bone are left relatively untroubled.