This was sold to me as a comedy, and if I could think of a single laugh I had, then I would give it a higher rating. There is an interesting story to be had here, particularly its being based on the true story of one Steven Russell (Jim Carrey). Russell was an ultimate con man and jail-breaker, but this presentation is so erratic and exaggerated that it fell flat for me.
Russell winds up in prison where he meets the eponymous Philip Morris (Ewan McGregor), his true love. Carrey and McGregor have about as much chemistry between them as any two straight guys pretending to be gay would have. I have rarely been more conscious of actors straining to act a part. How McGregor got involved in this nonsense is beyond me.
With regard to its failure as a comedy consider just one scene, the scene where Carrey is being chased and jumps off the ledge of a building. He first throws his shoes over and we see that they land softly on some bags in a dumpster. Then Carrey jumps and we see that he has missed the dumpster entirely and is on the ground bleeding. It's supposed to be funny that we think Carrey is so stupid as to jump *away* from the dumpster and that we think he is dead? But not only is he not dead, the story continues as if nothing had happened.
The depictions of how Steven Russell pulled off his cons are so simple that, as presented, they could not have worked in reality. There is an idea that one can get by in a profession by simply pretending, without any preparation. The real Russell was surely cleverer than what is shown here. Can you win a legal case by calling the judge into his chambers and remaining silent until the judge volunteers winning case law to you? In fact it would be interesting to know just how the real Russell did accomplish his astonishing feats.
I did not find the the frequent references to homosexual practices (e.g. you can either pay for that or perform oral sex) particularly funny. A potential audience should be warned that there are some explicit scenes that many will find disgusting, like the anal intercourse scene. Will anyone find that amusing?
The tone is all over the map. Most scenes are played for comedy, but then you have a scene like the one that has Carrey at the bedside of a partner who is in the final moments of his dying of AIDS. That scene is played for drama and if you think that Carrey has the chops to pull that off, then you have a higher ability to suspend disbelief than I.
This thing was a total loss for me.
Russell winds up in prison where he meets the eponymous Philip Morris (Ewan McGregor), his true love. Carrey and McGregor have about as much chemistry between them as any two straight guys pretending to be gay would have. I have rarely been more conscious of actors straining to act a part. How McGregor got involved in this nonsense is beyond me.
With regard to its failure as a comedy consider just one scene, the scene where Carrey is being chased and jumps off the ledge of a building. He first throws his shoes over and we see that they land softly on some bags in a dumpster. Then Carrey jumps and we see that he has missed the dumpster entirely and is on the ground bleeding. It's supposed to be funny that we think Carrey is so stupid as to jump *away* from the dumpster and that we think he is dead? But not only is he not dead, the story continues as if nothing had happened.
The depictions of how Steven Russell pulled off his cons are so simple that, as presented, they could not have worked in reality. There is an idea that one can get by in a profession by simply pretending, without any preparation. The real Russell was surely cleverer than what is shown here. Can you win a legal case by calling the judge into his chambers and remaining silent until the judge volunteers winning case law to you? In fact it would be interesting to know just how the real Russell did accomplish his astonishing feats.
I did not find the the frequent references to homosexual practices (e.g. you can either pay for that or perform oral sex) particularly funny. A potential audience should be warned that there are some explicit scenes that many will find disgusting, like the anal intercourse scene. Will anyone find that amusing?
The tone is all over the map. Most scenes are played for comedy, but then you have a scene like the one that has Carrey at the bedside of a partner who is in the final moments of his dying of AIDS. That scene is played for drama and if you think that Carrey has the chops to pull that off, then you have a higher ability to suspend disbelief than I.
This thing was a total loss for me.