''I Love You Phillip Morris'' is a 2009 English-language French

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist,

impostor An impostor (also spelled imposter) is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often through means of disguise. Their objective is usually to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but also often for purposes ...

and multiple

prison escape A prison escape (referred as a bust out, breakout, jailbreak, or prison break) is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture t ...

Steven Jay Russell Steven Jay Russell (born December 31, 1957) is an American con artist, known for escaping from prison multiple times. ''I Love You Phillip Morris'', a film about his life and crimes, was produced in 2009. In 2011, his crimes were featured on ...

, as played by

Jim Carrey James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and artist. Known for his energetic slapstick performances, Carrey first gained recognition in 1990, after landing a role in the American sketch comedy t ...

. While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris ( Ewan McGregor). After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times to be reunited with Morris. The film was adapted from the 2003 book ''I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks'' by Steve McVicker. The film is the directorial debut of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. It grossed $20 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. For their writing, Requa and Ficarra received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Plot

is on his deathbed, recalling the events of his life that led him to this point. He spent his early adult years in

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous ci ...

as a police officer. He plays the organ at church, has unenthusiastic sex with his wife, Debbie, and spends his off-hours searching for his biological mother, who had placed him for adoption as a child. Steven locates his biological mother, but she rejects him. He then quits the police force and moves to Texas and works for Sysco, the family business. After a car crash on the way from a homosexual tryst, Steven leaves his family and life behind, though he keeps in touch with his wife and young daughter, and explores the world as his true self – a gay man. He moves to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, where he finds a boyfriend, Jimmy, and they adopt a luxurious lifestyle. To keep themselves in the style to which they have become accustomed, Steven becomes a con man. He is pursued by the police, and, after jumping off a parking garage, is sent to prison, where he falls in love with inmate Phillip Morris. Steven cannot bear to be separated from Phillip. After being released, he helps get Phillip freed from prison by posing as a lawyer, then attains wealth by fraudulently acquiring a position as Chief Financial Officer of a large medical management company called USAMM. Steven is eventually caught embezzling. While in the police car, he reminisces about Jimmy in Florida, dying of AIDS. He asks the police for Phillip's

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism ...

and injects himself. He goes back to prison, where Phillip is also sent as an accomplice and angrily tells Steven he never wants to see him again. Months later, Phillip learns from another inmate that Steven is dying of AIDS. Heartbroken, Phillip calls Steven while he is in the infirmary and confesses that, while he is still upset with Steven for lying to him, he still loves him. Phillip is later told that Steven has died. Sometime later, Phillip is taken to meet with his lawyer and finds Steven waiting for him. Steven describes how he faked dying of AIDS, to be allowed to see Phillip again, and promises never to lie to him again. He runs one last con to break Phillip out of prison, only to be caught when he runs into an old co-worker. The end of the movie explains that the real-life Phillip was released from prison in 2006; but Steven was given a life sentence and is in 23-hour lockup, only having one free hour a day to shower and exercise, which the film implies to be because an official involved in the sentencing had a brother-in-law who was conned by Russell. The last scene shows Steven laughing joyfully while running across the prison yard, guards in pursuit, in another attempt to be with Phillip.

Cast

In addition, Phillip Morris has an uncredited cameo as Steven's lawyer during the movie-end court scene.

Production

After original difficulty finding a U.S. distributor, likely due to its explicit gay sexual content, the film was re-edited. In May 2009, it was announced by ''Variety'' that Consolidated Pictures Group had acquired the rights for distribution. Portions of the film were filmed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola) in

West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana West Feliciana Parish (French: ''Paroisse de Feliciana Ouest''; Spanish: ''Parroquia de West Feliciana'') is a civil parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 census, the population was 15,625, and 15,310 at the 2020 census. ...

. A Christian blogger stated that warden Burl Cain did not permit one sex scene between two male inmates to be filmed at the prison.Ridgeway, James. "God's Own Warden." '' Mother Jones''. July/August 2011 Issue. p
2
Retrieved on March 23, 2013. The real Phillip Morris even appears in a cameo as Steven's lawyer in one scene.

Release

The film was released in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

between February and April 2010. Although a limited run in the United States was initially scheduled for April 30, 2010, it was later reported that the film's release had been indefinitely postponed by its distributors, Consolidated Pictures Group but on April 12, 2010, '' Variety'' announced the distributor had had a change of heart and that ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' would be shown in limited theaters starting July 30 before expanding nationwide on August 6. On June 3, 2010, the film was delayed yet again due to legal battles. The film was finally released on December 3, 2010, after

Roadside Attractions Roadside Attractions is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, specializing largely in independent films An independent film, in ...

and Liddell Entertainment acquired the rights to distribute in the United States.

Box office

''I Love You Phillip Morris'' has a worldwide gross of $20,722,843 .

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

has a 71% critic rating based on 156 reviews and an average score of 6.6/10. The critical consensus is: "This fact-based romantic comedy has its flaws, but they're mostly overcome by its consistently sweet, funny tone and one of the best performances of Jim Carrey's career." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Steve Persall from the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' wrote, "Think '' Catch Me If You Can'' mashed up with ''

Brokeback Mountain ''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written ...

'' if

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...

directed and you'll get the idea." John Anderson of '' Variety'' remarked, "Less of a comedy than a hilarious tragedy, ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' stars Jim Carrey in his most complicated comedic role since ''

The Cable Guy ''The Cable Guy'' is a 1996 American black comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, written by Lou Holtz Jr. and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. It was released in the United States on June 14, 1996. The film co-stars Leslie Mann, Jack B ...

''." ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' wrote, "One of the funniest films of the year, this is a wonderful mix of old-school Carrey outrageousness with a genuinely touching – and very modern – love story." Damon Wise of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' gave the film four stars out of five, stating, "''I Love You Phillip Morris'' is an extraordinary film that serves as a reminder of just how good Carrey can be when he's not tied into a generic Hollywood crowd-pleaser. His comic timing remains as exquisite as ever." Xan Brooks of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' also gave the film a positive review, describing the movie as "fast, funny and rather daring. A whisk of caffeine with a center that's sweet."

Italy controversy

The distribution and promotion of the film in Italy by its Italian distributor Lucky Red was strongly criticized. The advertising campaign (posters, trailers and TV commercials) was accused of minimizing the homosexual themes of the film to present it as a simple comedy, removing the romantic relationship between Steve and Phillip in the film with the aim of attracting a larger audience. Ewan McGregor was removed from the billing list in the trailer. Lucky Red later claimed to have purchased from its distributor and production company

EuropaCorp EuropaCorp S.A. (stylised in opening logo as EUROPA CORP.) is a French motion picture company headquartered in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and one of a few full service independent studios that both produces and distributes feature ...

as a "softer" version of the original, in which most of the homosexual sex scenes between the protagonists Steve and Phillip were removed.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

on April 5, 2011.

Soundtrack

''I Love You Phillip Morris: Original Soundtrack'' was composed by Nick Urata.

References

External links

* * * * *
Interview with Phillip Morris
fo
Gay Times

Interview with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa about I Love You Phillip Morris
a
ION Magazine
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