|
|
Convict Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) puts the moves on fellow convict Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) in the fact-based “I Love You Phillip Morris.” |
The extent that Jim Carrey’s con man character in “I Love You Phillip Morris” connects with its audience ultimately determines how much we are drawn into this peculiar and edgy story of unstoppable, limitless true love.
Of course, this will vary from viewer to viewer. But for me, Carrey’s daring, bombastic portrait of a sociopathic homosexual convict who falls for a mild-mannered fellow inmate comes off as insincere, removed and disingenuous.
That’s not altogether a bad thing. After all, he’s a con man. He’s supposed to be insincere and disingenuous.
But Carrey plays Steven Russell with such calculated aloofness, and suppresses so many comic bits threatening to erupt at any moment, I expected him to stop dead in the middle of a major dramatic scene, look at us and shout, “I’m just kiddin’ around!”
“Phillip Morris” contains a few heavy dramatic scenes that would benefit from a character who we believe is truly tormented or emotionally distraught.
Carrey can take us just so far down the road to serious Oscar emoting until that twinkle in his eye suggests it’s all a put-on. He’s conning us, too.
If “I Love You Phillip Morris” had a theme song, it would be “What I Did for Love” from the musical “A Chorus Line.”
What Steven Russell does for love is lie, cheat, steal, run, impersonate, forge, escape from prison and risk death, several times over. (Read more…)