I love you Phillip Morris is a movie based on the true story of Stephen Jay Russell (interview here). Jim Carrey plays Stephen with just the right amount of humour and pathos to make the film a success. Stephen is an upstanding citizen, married, church going etc, but decides he has to come out as a gay man and get divorced. He eventually gets sent to prison (not, l hasten to add, for being gay). While incarcerated, he meets and falls in love with another inmate (guess his name) played by Ewan McGregor. He then proceeds to escape from prison (on more that one occasion) to live and be near him as Phillip was only serving a short sentence and Stephen kept being caught for other crimes. It is a tragi-comedy with a love story at the heart of it, and it is done remarkably well, although McGregor was not exactly stretched in his role (there is a gay joke in there somewhere). Carey keeps his over the top humour in check, and is totally believable as a man dying from AIDS. Was not too keen on all the man kissing, but it made me cry at the end, especially the scene when McGregor was on the telephone (big softie that l am).
toodle pip
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