Cool News
Thomas Lovecraft says I LOVE YOU, PHILLIP MORRIS at the Gothenburg International Film Festival!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey folks, Harry here with a review out of a festival that I didn't know about. Something called the Gothenburg International Film Festival. So I decided to Google search it, and found Göteborg International Film Festival which takes place in Göteborg, Sweden right now. It is also the largest film festival in Scandinavia. Would love to go some year, though I be it is pretty darn cold this time of the year, right? So all the way from Sweden comes this look at the Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor kissy-face flick, I LOVE YOU, PHILLIP MORRIS!
A movie about a guy who realizes he´s gay and then spends a good portion of the film in a very manly environment? No, I did not go to a Heath Ledger-retrospective to watch ”Brokeback Mountain”. Instead I visited the Gothenburg International Film Festival and saw the new Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor-vehicle ”I Love You, Philip Morris”. Now, I like Jim Carrey as much as the next guy, alright? Even though his movies are mostly entertaining in a pleasant, non-offensive kind of way, the guy still surprises me every now and then with a genuinely fine performance. His Andy Kaufman in ”The Man on the Moon” was pretty amazing and he managed to bring some depth to that weepy guy he portrayed in ”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, there´s no arguing that, right? And that´s how I prefer my Carrey: restrained and low key! When he starts resorting to over-the-top, whacky faces I tend to lose interest. Fortunately, he doesn´t go down that road too often in ”I Love You, Philip Morris”. He keeps his car in the right lane of the acting highway in this one.
When I heard that Carrey was going to star in a movie written and directed by the guys who wrote what could be the funniest movie of the last ten years, ”Bad Santa”, I thought ”Finally! Maybe this will bring some edge to his work”. And when I heard that it was supposed to be based on a true story about a guy who, after a near death experience, realizes he’s gay and makes a vow to live his life to the fullest, I was jumping with joy! If there ever were a premise ready to be mined for some politically incorrect humor, this was it. Carrey as a newly ”born” homosexual who lands himself in prison? Count me in.
As it turns out, John Regua and Glenn Ficarra doesn´t take the easy way out. For the first half hour, it´s pretty obvious that this is the guys who wrote Billy Bob Thornton´s many tirades against all things holy in ”Bad Santa”. And I´m gonna level with you, fellas: this first half hour or forty minutes was when I laughed the most.
You see, this is a movie of two halves: it starts out as your ordinary Jim Carrey-movie with the kind of broad comedy you´d expect from it. The scenes of his accident and his realization regarding his sexuality are pretty hilarious and I can guarantee you that these are lines you´ll be hearing quoted back to you at parties for a long time to come. I mean, whenever you go to a party, there´s at least one guy who thinks that the funniest thing in the world is himself spouting a bunch of Jim Carrey-lines. Am I right? How many times haven’t you heard someone say ”It's okay! I'm a limo driver!”, while he´s looking like he came up with the most brilliant line ever on the spot? Well, rest assured, party-goers! We´ve got some new lines in store for you. Being the nice guy that I am, I’m not gonna ruin them for you here.
Anyway, Carrey realizes that he´s homosexual so he dumps his wife, played by the lovely Leslie Mann who´s pretty much wasted in yet another thankless role, and moves to Florida to live out his pink-hued dreams. But as Carrey´s character puts it: ”Being gay´s expensive”. So, he starts scamming insurance- and credit card companies to keep things going. Eventually, this lands him in prison. This is where he meets Philip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor. And in case you haven´t figured it out yet, Jim Carrey loves him. I didn´t see a scene with them sitting in a tree, tongue-wrestling, but that´s the general idea. Maybe I missed it. Their relationship blossoms in the prison environment and it´s also in these scenes that the filmmakers finds an outlet for their affinity for characters exploding with deliriously filthy dialogue, ”Bad Santa”-style. Unfortunately, this type of comedy takes a side step for a more traditional love story and I´m kinda torn about how I feel about that.
On one hand I was surprised at how genuine Carrey and McGregor´s relationship felt. They really convinced me that these guys love each other and this is much thanks to McGregor´s performance. It´s nowhere near as flamboyant or showy as Carrey´s, who gets to slip in and out of different costumes and take on different identities as he´s scamming his way through the Midwest. However, you can understand why Carrey´s Steve falls for him. He starts out as a standard-formula-type-A-Hollywood-homosexual character but slowly evolves into a character you really feel for. This is all McGregor, because he isn´t given much to work with, to be honest. But he is the emotional epi-centre of the movie and it´s he who sells the emotional scenes, which turns out to be pivotal to this film.
This is a surprisingly tender movie that isn´t afraid to let its characters emotions play out and that kinda caught me off guard. I wasn´t expecting that from the guys who wrote that “You´re not gonna shit right for a week”-line. But they do and they pull it off, so I guess good work on that, guys!
It will be interesting to see what kind of reception this one gets in the states because it is surprisingly frank about its subject and I´m guessing that some scenes will send the Christian rights-movement reeling into another one of their “This sick film must be banned!”-hysterics. Over here in Sweden, it´s everyday stuff for us. What Carrey and McGregor do in the private comfort of their prison cell to each other, people do in the streets over here. The Swedish sin, remember? It´s worse than ever.
I guess what makes this movie pretty good is also what initially put me off: the fact that it balances its humor with some very dark themes and drama. As I´m writing this I realize that I liked this movie more than I thought I would after walking out of the theatre. As it is, it kinda plays out like if James L. Brooks suffered a bout of Tourette´s syndrome. And I mean that in the best possible way.
So even if this may not be another classic, like “Bad Santa”, Ficarra and Requa has a pretty original approach to humor and I really appreciate that. I´m not gonna go into detail because we all know that the highest form of meaninglessness is someone trying to explain why something is funny. So I´m not. But they do use the sound design of the movie and music to get a few laughs and I thought that this was a somewhat fresh approach.
So I guess this a good one. Go see it. And I promise you: at no point does Jim Carrey look deep into Ewan McGregor´s eyes and whisper: “I wish I knew how to quit you” so it´s got that going for it, as well.
Thanks for your time,
Thomas
(My Page)
-
+ Expand All
-
If you ever decide to check out Gothenburg, I'll hook you up with a place to stay. You know I live in town.
-
Never heard anyone say that at any parties I've been to.
-
I wonder if it will get and theatrical release here.
-
"Any buggerin in it?"
-
For fuckin' shame man!
-
Brokeback Mountain was easily one of the best films of the last decade. And it featured one of the strongest performances ever, from Ledger. This film sounds pretty good and it's definitely got something going from it if the Bad Santa guys made it.
-
Feb 03, 2010 5:34:38 PM CST
Wonder how many parents unknowingly take their kids to this
by wickedjester
It's about the GAYS!?!?
-
i guess its altria now
-
Those were the cigarette people, right? Changed their name to "Altria," or something? They couldn't be bothered to come up with a name that wasn't a billion dollar company? huh, I don't know if that qualifies as lazy writing, but it has to come close.
-
right, bc a film entitled "I Love You, Phillip Morris" just screams family film.
-
Feb 03, 2010 8:54:51 PM CST
Tenenbaum- Titles mean nothing.. All about how the trailers cut.
by wickedjester
-
Phillip Morris is the guy's real name, it's not fictionalized.http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-You-Phillip-Morris/dp/0786869038
-
this will be like crack for pro-censorship crowd
-
I've come to expect much worse....where to from here I wonder?
-
Seriously- it was nihilistic piece of trash with no redeeming qualities. I hate the fucking movie.
-
Gay is funny, right?
-
What...the...fuck. Movie was hilarious.
-
Feb 04, 2010 3:19:07 AM CST
Bad Santa is a classic, though Zwigof's Ghost World is even bett
by sherlock_junior
Gotta love the odd ball characters
-
I was there last weekend and saw Cracks, Agora, Tomorrow At Dawn, and a really, really great Isreali tank movie called Lebanon. All these were good, but Lebanon was a masterpiece. And the weather was cold, icy, and snowy. It's a great festival, but attendants sort of need to know how to walk on ice.
-
alan_poon – Yes, there is a fair amount of buggering in it. Unfortunately no banjos, though
TheWaqman – I didn´t mean to be rack down on ”Brokeback Mountain”. I thought it was an excellent movie with one of the more engaging love stories of the last decade but that line about how Gyllenhaal wishes that he knew how to quit Ledger was pretty squirm-inducing, wouldn´t you say? I think it would´ve been a better movie without it.
I think that it would be interesting to see what Terry Zwigoff would´ve done with this material. I think that it would´ve been a radically different film and I guess that´s what I was expecting when I walked into the showing: a really dark and bleak comedy. However, I think that these guys Regua & Ficarra shows a lot of promise for the future. They´re obviously not afraid to tackle subjects that most filmmakers would steer clear from and that bodes well, I think. Comedy needs more of their kind.
-
Ok. And nice to know Ewan McGregor still gets roles.
-
All I got. Tired.
-
get it? Truman...Two-Man? Doh!
-
it made the film a lot more memorable for some people out there though.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 325 total posts 322 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 106 total posts 106 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 63 total posts 60 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 74 total posts 58 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 159 total posts 51 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 47 total posts 41 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 161 total posts 34 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 488 total posts 33 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 121 total posts 23 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 70 total posts 20 posts