This film was quite different from what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be the story of the straight man who gets sent to prison and falls in love with another man for the first time. In fact, although our hero is married, he's gay and he knows it. After a car accident, he decides it's time for him to live a more authentic life as an out gay man. Learning that living the gay highlife is very expensive, he turns to insurance fraud to keep him and his boyfriend in the manner to which they've become accustomed. Eventually, he gets caught and sent to prison.
In prison, he meets and falls in love with the Phillip Morris of the title and concocts evermore elaborate schemes to get his lover out of prison so that they can be together.
Both Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor give great performances, as the conman and his beloved respectively. The film is a blend of thriller, comedy and love story and all through these elements are deftly woven together. But what really made this film for me, is that this is a film about gay men without being a film about gayness. None of the gay characters agonise over their gayness, it's just taken as a given, and the story is just about what happens to them. As has been noted by other commentators, most gay films, at least mainstream Hollywood ones, are films about gayness and its struggles. "I Love You, Phillip Morris" doesn't fit this mould and is all the better for it.
I found this film funny and touching and rate it a solid 4 stars out of 5.
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