It's holidays. I'm watching movies (I do enjoy making use of the cheap Tuesdays at the video store) - I'll try not to flood you with movie posts though. Saturday I watched I Love You Phillip Morris.
If you haven't seen it, it's like a gay version of Catch Me If You Can. Fraud, prison, lies and love. Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) and Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) find love in prison. Phillip is so innocent and open; Steven is such a conman. Yet Phillip falls for Steven's lines, which, although cheesy and all those things lovers say to one another, are as true as he can make them. He really does love Phillip. And everything he does once they're out of prison is for love. Ooh, cue moral dilemmas.
On the one hand, I do appreciate that our society is not great in the treatment of ex-jailbirds. And often people with great brains and ingenuity cannot afford college degrees, for whatever reason. So if you're smart enough to pull off a job interview con, and then uphold your con with actual good work, maybe you've just saved yourself a few years and thousands and thousands of dollars. Swindling those with whom you work... getting a bit more charcoal here... Admittedly, his coworkers came across as boring twats (paraphrased a little). But how much money do you need, really? If someone really loves you, do they really need to prove it by showering you with gifts?
Towards the end of the movie (which is based on a true story), Phillip finally realises that Steven has been lying from the word Go. And he says something I imagine has been said, in some form or other, in countless relationships throughout time: "You were supposed to protect me. But you did nothing but make a fool out of me. And you expect me to love you?"
Steven admits what many of us ignore about ourselves: he lies. Sure, his were a little more far-reaching than what most of us do. But (especially in our younger, more malleable years), I think his words might apply to many of us: "Lies - to make people give me their money. Lies to make people love me. And lies to keep them from leaving me. And in the process I lost track of who I was." Well, maybe not the first bit. But we lie to change they way people see us, and if we keep on lying and not being honest with ourselves, it's really hard to know who we are. Knowing who we are is hard enough to begin with, but muddying the waters with lies just makes it even harder. We are social creatures, though, and sometimes we need a lie or two so we can stay in our social groups and survive...or try to find a different social group, even though change is so hard.
Other things about this movie: I loved the music! Set mostly in Texas, it had a quasi-mariachi feel to it. It's a true story - but I did question how exactly the prison romance would have worked, how Steven would have organised to be transferred and all that. The deep south - well. So much bible-belt feel, complete with prayers that go on and on and on, and the taxi driver who picks up Steven upon his release from jail the first time and starts telling him about Jesus, and the ex-wife who seemed so clueless ("Are the stealing and the gay thing related?", for example). Ewan McGregor (one of my favourite actors - if you've seen Down With Love you'll know what I mean) plays a part very similar to his fake character in Down With Love actually, the southern drawl and innocent personality. It has very funny parts ("Being gay is really expensive") but also bits that made me cry. It's still got me thinking about the whole love thing. Why do we love who we love? How do we know what's a lie? And if we really love someone, how much do those lies matter?
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