Saturday 27 March 2010

Thoughts on I Love You Phillip Morris

There are definitely spoilers ahead so, if you want to see the film, I wouldn't bother reading further because it will just spoil it for you.

OK, so if you didn't know - because the makers of the film have been struggling to find a distributor for it; 'I Love You Phillip Morris' is like a gay rom-com-con drama prison thingy with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.

Ewan McGregor (he Scottish) plays an American and there are a few times when his accent wobbles. And Jim Carrey sometimes teeters on the verge of becoming Ace Ventura and shouting "aaallll-righty then!"

But actually, on the whole, the film is pretty good. Well, there is one sex scene that is like hectically gay.
That's not to say that the sex scene makes it bad - it's just that the level of er - detail, I don't think was necessary.

I liked that the film appears to be a "start to finish" film but actually takes a lot of twists and turns. Get me?

The narrative has a lot of colours and textures too. There's farce, comedy, romantic moments, smutty moments, sad moments - it's all in there.

Maybe the reason that this isn't a better film is that it does sometimes feel a bit box-tickey.

I spotted a few Hitchcockian noir-ish techniques, for example, whenever Ewan McGregor's character is upset, he is seen behind the shadow of prison bars.

And just before bad things are about to happen, calm water features in the scene.

Anyway.

Yeah, the groany bit was at a particularly tender moment the Duetto-Sul Aria from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro is heard which is, of course, used heavily in The Shawshank Redemption. Maybe this is on purpose.

My friend Katie (she, straight) said she really enjoyed it and thought I might like it. I phoned her afterwards and thanked her for the recommendation.

"I thought it would be 90 minutes of La Cage Aux Folles, but I was pleasantly surprised."

I am not recommending you go and see it. Four people walked out during the film. You'll either mildly enjoy it or loathe it. True?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not recommending you go and see it. Four people walked out during the film. You'll either mildly enjoy it or loathe it. True?

Not true for me, I enjoyed it alot.

Jake said...

I think your assessment is quite accurate. I enjoyed it but I didn't love it. It wasn't really funny enough for a comedy, and wasn't really dramatic enough for a drama, but it was interesting and entertaining enough.

I think I can guess the scene you felt a bit gratuitous, but when I saw it, that was one of the bits that got one of the biggest laughs, in what I think was a predominantly straight audience (guys with their girlfriends etc) and not in a 'ewww gross' kind of way. I thought that was quite good really!