I Love You Phillip Morris: Critic Reviews

It sustains a tone of compassionate hilarity in which oversize romantic gestures coexist with gigantic scams.

With his manic glare, ferociously eager smile, hyperkinetic body language and talent for instant self-transformation, Mr. Carrey has rarely been more charismatic on the screen.

The puzzle fits together very entertainingly here.

Directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who wrote the wickedly hilarious Bad Santa, assume a mocking tone that falls flat. They aspire for a cleverly offbeat vibe, but it feels forced and calculated.

There's plenty to scratch your head about here. Is it a drama? A comedy? And if it's a farce, what's it making fun of?

This isn't great farce, but it's more than good enough. And Carrey is more than good enough in it.

Carrey finds the perfect outlet for his manic energy: Id and libido are fused, with Steven driven by actual lust and the unwavering -- and completely believable - determination to provide for his fragile boyfriend.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" not only blasts gay stereotypes back decades, it could actually make people wish for a third Ace Ventura movie.

There's never been a movie like this one. That's not to say it's all good or all bad, though it's never indifferent.

The romance between them is touching at its best moments, corny at its worst.

It finds the humor in an unlikely love story, and it resists any temptation to play it straight.

At best, I Love You Phillip Morris may be hailed as a necessary step in Hollywood's fearful crawl toward sexual evenhandedness; the film upholds the constitutional right of every gay man to be as much of a liar, a crook, and a creep as the rest of us.

Carrey makes the role seem effortless; he deceives as spontaneously as others breathe.

Russell was a fascinating character and a real puzzle box; but the filmmakers have turned his life into a broad farce with one wocka-wocka gag after another.

Yes, some familiar Carrey tactics are on display, but the star's performance has real heart - it's easily the best thing he has done since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

A delirious comedy that remains on track largely thanks to Jim Carrey's goofy but grounded performance.

Carrey is truly great in one of those rare risky roles that prove he can do more than pull faces, although the frank portrayal of an alpha male who is also "gay, gay, gay, gay, gay" is sure to make some percentage of his fan base squirm.

Mr. Carrey has balls of brass, but seeing him dressed flamboyantly in fish-net bikinis and high-heel Nancy Sinatra boots is an experience I hope never to repeat again in this lifetime.

Less of a comedy than a hilarious tragedy.

Such an endearing oddity that you have to wonder exactly for whom it was made. But I'm glad they did nonetheless.

Despite its title, it has nothing to do with cigarettes. But its star, as he once famously said on screen, is absolutely "smokin'."

This is the most interesting role Carrey has had in a long while.

It's like a Coen brothers movie, if Joel and Ethan did a ton of crank and decided to flush story structure down the crapper.

Phillip Morris isn't a perfect movie by any means, but it's irresistibly self-assured in its weirdness.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of I Love You Phillip Morris is its inability to maintain the high level at which it begins -- a withering lampoon of wholesome, middle class values.