If there’s one thing we know about Jim Carrey is that he loves to ham it up. We also know he can play a dramatic role with aplomb, so the chance to play Steven Russell in I Love You Phillip Morris, a performance that requires a mixture of both, should be a shoo-in for the rubber faced one. The real life story behind Steven Russell’s life of cons, impersonations and prison escapes is amazing enough and hardly surprising it’s been ear-marked for the movie treatment. So storyline aside, does Carrey carry it off? Not quite. Despite getting the mixture of comedy and drama just about spot on, he doesn’t quite play it right. Russell is portrayed as not quite believing all the scrapes he’s got himself into and that his “success” is more down to luck rather than anything. No doubt he was helped by the stupidity of others in some circumstances, but Russell himself is clearly a very intelligent man, which doesn’t quite come across properly. During one of his incarcerations, Russell falls in love with the eponymous Morris (Ewan McGregor). Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a two hander though. McGregor is fine, but this is the Carrey show all the way. One problem the film does have though is trying to cram as much as possible into such a short(ish) running time. With no real indicators about where we are date wise in Russell’s life (and with Carrey not visibly aging on screen) it feels like 10 years plus of storyline all occur within a few months of each other. Overall though, this is a decent stab at portraying a, hard to believe in the first place, series of events.
The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A bit flimsy in respect of the “source material”, but this is well acted, funny and still a fascinating story to research further. Though you might feel a bit conned yourself at a scene of outrageous emotional blackmail towards the end. Rating: 7/10
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