The Phillip Morris addiction that gets a little out of control
Gus Van Sant was slated to direct "I Love You Phillip Morris" before he backed down or walked out, leaving the screenwriting team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa stranded in filmmaking purgatory. There they were, with a helluva story (true to life) and a goal to get the movie to Sundance within the year (2009). So they went ahead and grabbed the megaphone — or whatever it is that directors usually have in their hands — and got to work. The result is an utterly professional and meticulously crafted tale of love between two men: Jim Carrey as protagonist Steven Russell, and Ewan McGregor as the object of his passions, Phillip Morris.
"I Love You Phillip Morris" is crazy, sexy, cool — the kind of feverish, rash-inducing love story that used to wow audiences way back in the 1990s, like David Lynch's disjointed and nonsensical "Wild at Heart" or the cheap, charming "True Romance" by Tony Scott. But these days, heterosexual love stories seem to be on permanent shipwreck mode, replaced by dire self-help vehicles preaching the straight and narrow path to the perfect relationship.