Monday's Movie Madness - Review: "I Love you Phillip Morris"

Our Rating *** (3 stars)

This movie took us by surprise.
At the video shop the info on this dvd was pretty light. I was in a rush. We felt like a nice & gentle comedy. It had been a big week, so nothing too hard.....
The plot description was equally vague, but we have always liked movies by both Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor.

In hindsight visiting a website with a section like this one would have been helpful. I would have a little more info on hand to be prepared to make an informed decision.This is the problem with going to the video shop - you have to rely on previously viewed trailers, recommendations, or just be brave and pick based on covers.

Don't get me wrong, we both liked the movie, but we weren't prepared to watch a gay love story about a conman who lies, steals and cheats to make his way through love, a difficult childhood and an identity crisis.
By "not prepared to watch a gay love story" I mean just that.
Nothing against gay love stories at all, but we were in the mood for a light comedy, and that was how the movie was sold on the dvd cover. It was only after watching it that I took another look at the cover and noted all of the innuendo that suggested more about the story than the words gave on the cover.
The lesson here is to look at things a little more carefully before jumping straight in, which kind of sums up the Jim Carrey character in this movie.

The story is based on a true one, and is intriguing, lovely and heartfelt. The first time directors, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (also responsible for writing the Billy Bob Thornton flick Bad Santa), have done a great job on a movie that would have been very easy to slip into crass stereotypes. The performances by both Carrey and McGregor are sublime, and deliver a wonderful sincerity to a story that could have been very cheesy instead of engaging and thought provoking. Not the kind of description one would expect for a jim Carrey "comedy" but a great watch if you are in the mood.

It grossed a little over USD$20 million worldwide from a budget of $13 million, after its limited theatrical release, and continues to do well in dvd releases.

These two actors are seriously good at what they do.
Jim Carrey has done some off the wall stuff over the years, so you kind of expect that layer of comedy to shine through most of his roles. This is a very close minded view, and the curse of actors that make a fantastic start of a career with a string of roles that are all the same kind of character.

Lately Jim Carrey has been doing some serious roles, mixed with some nice drama, so when a movie is described as a "comedy" one just jumps to the conclusion that we will see the warped side of the Jim Carrey character we all know and love, much like the personality shown in the following interview that the both of them did for promotion of the movie for French TV.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable movie, made more so if you watch the special features and get more of the background story behind the factual events that the movie is based on.