Steven Russell (acted by frenetic comic Jim Carrey) is everything you might never want to be. He is a habitual liar, deceiver, and twister of the truth, a self-improved star of his own private universe, a master manipulator and a convincing conman. Don't arrive late for this flick, as the opening credits move quickly and impart much information. First, we meet Steve in a hospital. Straight faced he says, "Love is the reason I am lying here dying".

Do you believe him? The flick flashes back to Virginia Beach, Georgia, and a young Steven being told, "You're adopted". He says, "It hurt a lot."  Next he is playing the organ in the local Church of God and making eyes at Debby (played by Leslie Mann). She becomes his wife and mother of their little daughter and he becomes a stand-up straight policeman.  Later he confesses, "The only reason I became a policeman was to find my mother".

When that doesn't work out he moves to Texas, to "Live the American dream"- to Steven that means to come out of the closet. He confesses to seeing strange objects in the clouds when with other children cloud spotting. After an accident brings an epiphany, he moves to Florida and immerses himself in the gay scene there, even acquiring a steady boyfriend, Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro). To support his habit Steve turns to insurance and credit card fraud to make money. For a while this works, but then his number comes up and he's headed to prison.

In jail he learns every possible way to beat the system. He spends as much time as possible in the law library within the penitentiary. Posing as a lawyer, people who are meant to be the epitome of honesty, doesn't keep him from lying. When he first sets eyes on Phillip Morris (a submissive Ewan McGregor-not the cigarette; it is spelled with one "El") he knows that his destiny has arrived. This is a flick that moves quickly by-never a dull moment here. Various private aspects of prison life are exposed. It is quite amazing how he communicates to Phillip Morris from separate cells, gets a cell for them to share, and when he is released, becomes "Steven F... Russo" and Phillip Morris's lawyer, even managing to get him an "early release" out of prison. He then tries to make a living as an attorney, but this is extremely dicey, so he turns to what he is best at, "business".

Steven manufactures a fabulous CV and gets employed at the top of a company as Chief Financial Officer. He knows he can't perform, so he hires an assistant to do all the work for him, claiming the PowerPoint presentations and analysis as his. He even figures out how to invest large sums of monies that are lying dormant to earn interest and siphon part of it into his own account. In a number of months he has stashed away nearly a million dollars. During all this time, even when they move from a flat to a mansion, he never confesses to Phillip Morris how he really is accumulating all this wealth. All he wants is for them to live together and love each other.

One of Steven's mistakes is to make an enemy of another senior officer at the firm, Larry who eventually identifies what has happened. Will Steven rise above this, yet again? Not if the State of Texas can help it. What takes place creates confusion and unhappiness for Phillip Morris. He doesn't want to be lied to.  He tells Steven that he is still angry with him -"I don't know who you are ... I still love you". Does Steven yet know who he is?

Later Phillip says to Steven, "How do I know you are not Bull Shitting me again?" After a long pause, Steven says, "You don't". This is a movie full of constant surprises. It is meant to be based on a true story. As a romantic comedy that is really in the end a tragedy, of love between two men, and what it takes to be a raving con, as it involves challenges some people may wish to avoid. As in any good comedy the humour is in a combination of the action and the original one-liners that will make you laugh.

This is a flick that claims it is a "true story", but it is derived from a novel by Steve McVicker, and novels by definition are works of fiction.  Jim Carrey has a long list of hits under his belt. One that I like a lot is Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004). Others are Yes Man (2008) and Fun With Dick And Jane (2005), but none has matched the success of Bruce Almighty (2003) that earned over a billion Pula worldwide-a lot of the credit for its success should go to Morgan Freeman who plays God. In The Majestic (2002), a serious drama, Carrey played a blacklisted scriptwriter during the Senator McCarthy era. In 1996 he was the first actor to be paid 20 million dollars to star in a film, Cable Guy. He was only 34 years old. I Love You Phillip Morris is one hour and 36 minutes log. It is rated 16+. The directors are Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The cinematographer is Xavier Perez-Grobet.

The editor is Thomas J. Nordberg. The music is by Nick Urata and supervised by Gary Calamar. The production designer is Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski. The art director is Helen Harwell while the costume designer is David C. Robinson. It takes a lot of people to make a good movie. sasa_majuma@yahoo.co.uk