It does not appear to be real man-on-man sex, but there's a great deal of the carefully photographed variety in "I Love You Phillip Morris," which opens here today. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are the participants, and they certainly are acting as f they are having a very good time.
Away from the sex scenes, which are there because they're part of the homosexual love story of Steven Russell (Carrey) and Phillip Morris (McGregor), which played out over many years as Russell, a consummate con man and amazing escape artist, stole millions of dollars to support an ever-more-glamorous life style.
The story is true, proving once again that truth is far stranger than fiction. Russell is currently in a Texas prison, with a release date some time in the next century. Briefly, this is how it shakes out: Russell, an adoptee, had a rather ordinary childhood, grew up to be a straight policeman, married a strange woman (Leslie Mann) and had children. While bouncing around on his computer one night, he found his birth mother, but when he knocked on her door and identified himself, she slammed it in his face.
Next in this strange saga was an auto accident, and when Russell awakened, he decided to accept the fact that he was gay, and was going to live it to the hilt. So it was off to Miami Beach with Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro) and, eventually, a prison sentence where he met Phillip and dissolved with love. The scene of Steven and Phillip, dancing to Johnny Mathis and "Chances Are," while a prison riot flares all around them, is wondrous.
The homosexuality is not the story, however. The story is the amazing deceptions he played, becoming the chief financial officer of an insurance company to embezzle large amounts, impersonating a doctor to get out of prison, faking AIDS so well he was hospitalized. It's a series of incredible adventures, showing the gullibility of most people and the slickness of a real operator.
Carrey is a sheer delight in the role, and the screen play is brilliant. Carrey is so quick-witted, so nimble, so certain of what he is saying in every situation that the movie-goer will believe him implicitly. I did. Many will undoubtedly object to the overt gay sex, and that's probably the reason the movie has been waiting almost two years to be released. But if you don't tell the whole story, there is no point in making the film, and it's a very funny, exceptionally enjoyable, experience.
I Love You, Phillip Morris, opens today at the Tivoli.
—Joe