I Love You Phillip Morris works on a lot of levels - it's funny, well-paced, smart, at times quite romantic, and most of all, an exceptionally well-done character study of a con man. Movies about con men tread a fine line because the nature of what con men do is pretty repulsive - tricking people - but at the same time fascinating because of the skill and raw nerve necessary to be successful. ILYPM plays to both sides of this line, allowing the viewer to be drawn in by Stephen J. Russell's charismatic persona (well played by Jim Carrey), while never fully allowing the viewer to forget the true nature and costs of his actions.
I've always liked Jim Carrey as an actor and he does a great job in this movie, playing a man without a true center, who bounces from persona to persona, soaking up the approval of those around him as much as he does their money. He seems as at home playing the church organ as he does leading a new convict through a prison or running a presentation in a board room - maybe because he has no true self, any that he chooses to take on fits just as comfortably.
The central relationship in the movie between Russell and a man he meets in prison, Phillip Morris (played by Ewan MacGregor with a kind of gentle sweetness that manages to be endearing without being cloying), and the love story works both as a romance and as another way to see into Russell's character. Is it true love, or is having a grand passion just another role that Russell has chosen to take on? Is it something he truly feels, or is this just the role he's most comfortable in? The movie brings up a lot of these questions and doesn't really answer them, but not in an unsatisfying way - because by the end of it, you're not sure if Russell himself would know the answers.
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