This film was a favorite in the 2009 Sundance film festival which stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in their relationship through prison.  Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell a man who was once married and a distinguished police officer whom after a traumatic experience decides to come forth and reveal that he is gay.  Ewan McGregor plays Phillip Morris, whom Steven Russell meets in jail and finds himself infatuated with. The film was not released for quite sometime having difficulties finding a U.S. distributor due to the films explicit gay content.

Steven Russell is a distinguished police officer, married to Debbie (Leslie Mann) and has a daughter.  It is shown early on that he is gay in a graphic sex scene, but he does not fully come out until he is involved in a car accident.  He begins living as a gay man and “living how he wants” abusing the system for financial gain until he is arrested and sent to prison.   It is in prison that he meets Phillip Morris a young man arrested for grand theft.  They soon fall in love and begin their relationship within the walls of prison.  Once out however Steven falls into old habits of stealing and fraud and finds himself returned to prison.  It brings to question will Steven give up his ways in order to keep the man he loves.

The film was not as funny as the trailers had made it out to be.  As far as comedies go in terms of Jim Carreys career it falls somewhere along the lines of his least popular “Cable Guy” film.  However the acting and the passion shown between Carrey and McGregor falls more on the lines of great acting like in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”Both gave a performance that was superb and quite a new role for both actors.

My only problem with the film was the way it was portrayed in trailers.  It was not a side splitting comedy nor a heart felt love story, more of somewhere in between.  I am not naive when it comes to seeing that adversisers chose the best parts of a film to show during trailers to get people to come see them, it does however annoy me.  Especially when going into this film I was not expected a romantic comedy, but just a comedy.  The trailers show no indication that Jim Carreys character falls in love with Ewan McGregor’s other than the title “I Love You Phillip Morris”.  False advertising strikes again.

The film while entertaining also contains qutie a bit of graphic sexual content.  Many scenes depict Carrey enacting in sexual acts with Leslie Mann, as well as Ewan McGregor, and some others.  This is not shown at all in the trailers and anyone thinking of bringing the young kids to see a comedy with Jim Carrey in it should avoid this.  That being said if you would like to see a film with great acting, a wonderful storyline and some great laughs then check this out if you can.