Review: I Love You Phillip Morris (15)****

Jim Carrey delivers his best dramatic performance since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this improbable and utterly incredible true story.

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Based on a novel by investigative reporter Steve McVicker, I Love You Phillip Morris charts the romance of two prison inmates and their journey of self-discovery on both sides of the bars. Writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa strike a pleasing balance between laughter and soul-searching in this oddball comedy.

Crucially, Carrey generates smouldering screen chemistry with co-star Ewan McGregor, convincing us that undying love and a daredevil spirit can overcome anything.

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Truth is far, far stranger than Ficarra and Requa's fiction, which takes dramatic licence with the exploits of the white collar criminal, who escaped incarceration four times and has paid a terrible price for humiliating the US prison service.

The real Stephen Russell was handed a 144-year sentence and must spend 23 hours every day confined to his cell without visitors. That's no laughing matter.

When we first meet Stephen (Carrey), he is a police officer with a beautiful wife, Debbie (Leslie Mann), and daughter. However, the family man has a secret: He is gay.

Eventually Stephen comes out and moves to Florida with boyfriend Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro). The cost of living fabulously is high, and Stephen breaks the law to finance his lavish tastes.

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The authorities eventually catch up with the swindler and in prison he meets softly-spoken Phillip Morris (McGregor). The attraction is instant, and Stephen schemes to become his lover's cellmate.

When he finally gains parole, Stephen poses as a lawyer to get Phillip out of prison early, but outside, the conman struggles to mend his ways.

Phillip lands a job at a large corporation, where the temptation to embezzle is irresistible.

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