The Thousands

It’s shameful that such an exuberantly funny film has languished for two years without an Australian theatrical release (although it screened at MIFF last year) because it doesn’t treat its central gay love story as a tragic ordeal. However, as Steven Russell (the perfectly cast Jim Carrey) discovers, being gay can be brutal on the wallet.

Steven becomes a conman to keep up his ritzy lifestyle after a near-fatal car crash startles him into abandoning his respectable closeted life. Landing in prison, he falls hard for dopey, gorgeous Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), and their jailhouse courtship is absurd yet moving. (“Enough romance – let’s fuck!” says Phillip.) Steven vows never to leave Phillip… but he can’t quit his scheming ways, and must repeatedly, ingeniously escape jail to be with his true love. He’s back in the pokey now, scheduled for release in 2140.

Carrey and McGregor share a genuine spark, and Leslie Mann shines as Steven’s ex-wife Debbie. Refreshingly, I Love You Phillip Morris never shrinks from tastelessness – slow-dancing during a prison riot; cocks in the clouds. And like its fraudster protagonist, it subverts expectations at every turn, but so good-naturedly that you enjoy having been tricked.