"All that's left is the man who loves you.": I love you Phillip Morris Review

Director(s):  Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Writer:  Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Starring: Jim Carrey; Ewan McGregor
Rating: 8/10

One of the reasons I have this blog or even started blogging in the first place is because it relieves stress. Some people dance. I dream up urls and blog titles. To each her own. This blog typically is for anger or so I finally have a forum where my thoughts wont' be silenced.

I don't want to be silent about how much I love this movie.
I love this movie so much that I still have a smile on my face.

I Love you Phillip Morris is an awesome movie. As you checked from the trailer its about a (con) man named Steven Russel (Jim Carrey) who falls in love with Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) i prison. It has everything romance, sneaking out of prison, and stealing money from huge corporations. As always Jim Carrey is brilliant in this film. He does a great job with a character that has sooo many layers and with a movie that has so many moods. In one of his interviews he mentioned how he cut a small portion of his hair for the purpose of making the character seem thoughtful and intellegent. And while Ewan McGregor has a relatively small portion of the film he does a good job as the sweet love interest.

As an insane film analyst/person/critic/thing I really enjoyed how many things in this movie came full circle. For example, if you watched the trailer you know the scene where young Steven sees a cloud shaped like a penis. "I see a wiener." Phallic imagery repeats (both subtly and unsubtly) in the film. When young Steven is talking to his parents he's sitting alone in the middle of the couch and there are two circular pillows on the side. And we see clouds in the film a lot as well. In the only semi-explicit gay sex scene in the film there's cloud wallpaper. I love when movies do things like this because it makes me feel:

a. smart
b. like I was playing an interactive game of "That's what he said"

This movie also uses a lot of what I like to call billboard slogans. (I'm sure there is a real name for it but I can't find it soooo. For other words I make up check the dictionary)

Billboard Slogans; n. When your watching a movie and the movie tells you something with signs. After Steven decides he wants to come out of the closet we see a road sign that says "Men Ahead."

I really liked the pace of the film. I don't like movies with slow paces. Slow paced movies just make me want to scream "LIFE'S TOO SHORT" at the screen. So if you need long shots of people looking at each other longingly for three hours then this movie isn't for you. If you don't like your sense of hearing a.k.a you want silence for seven hours then this movie isn't for you. 

"No one's going to tell me what to do anymore. No more lies. I'm going to live my life my way. Be the real me. Buy what I want, do what I want, fuck who I want --my way. I'm going to be a fag -- a big fag. You hear me. I'm going to be a fag. FAGGOT! That's what they are going to call me."-Steven Russel

Now I have to say. I'm so happy that this movie was made. FINALLY, a gay character that does more than just hate being gay and can't be out of the closet. I mean that whole closet case thing is over and done with after the first ten minutes of the movie. I really love what the movie says about the importance of being honest. When the movie starts Steven Russel has a wife and it would seem that this movie is saying that being in the closet like was his first con.

This movie reminds me a little bit of the movie Blow or Monster in the since that things don't work out that well for our character. But despite that I think Steven Russel is the most awesome leading man in the history of ever. He's the sweetest. Even though he's a huge liar I just love him. I don't want to give anything away but the things that Steven does in this film just to be able to see Phillip just make me want to go, "awwwwwwwwww."

I only had one real problem with the movie. Someone says the n-word. Now it's not either of the main characters and it's not aimed at anyone specifically, but I had sort of prepared myself for the n-word being said at the beginning of the film and for the f word [the one that pertains to sexual orientation]. The only reason I mention it is because it did jolt me out of the film when I watched it. But at this point I need to just get used to the fact that the movies I like have characters in black face (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus) and stuff along those lines. Sigh.

In the comment section for the trailer I posted there was a huge argument about whether this movie was being anti-Christian. It isn't. Christianity is another thing that repeats in the film. From his wife then ex-wife that he calls "an angel" to the prayer that you saw in the film. It's not a huge thing in the film, but you can tell that it's something that Steven has to think about from time to time. Also someone said something about how they wished that Steven wasn't gay "if only Steven and Phillip were just good friends." This shit is why a movie that came out in 2009 and has been viewed around Europe  didn't come out in the US until Dec 3 2010 in selected fuckin' cities. Let's get this out of the way. The character is gay. Suck it up. He had different life experiences because he's gay. UGH
The movie - Gay = NO PLOT. 
"Fuckin Moron."

So in short PLEASE watch this movie. It'll make you laugh/cry..or want to cry/ but then make you smile. OH and if you don't scream "what" at least twice while watching the film then your not human.

P.S All in all I loved it, but I have found that some people (who aren't homophobic) don't like it because they feel it's a little stereotypical.  I can (sort of) see that view but I think that the movie does a lot of good for the gay community by having an interesting and dynamic (white) gay (male) character. I may do a DVD review at some point

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 Now because it makes me happy watch Jim Carrey on Letterman. Now If you don't have time.. or more likely your doing me a favor and you don't feel like watching a 15 minute interview. You don't have to watch it... however make sure you skip to the second video and watch from 4:47 to 5:42.