Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor's gay romance 'I Love You Phillip Morris' premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, is based on the real life story of one time Houston Chronicle reporter Steve McVicker. A born criminal, Steven Russell (Carrey), as McVicker's character is called in the film, has during a lifetime of larceny, masqueraded as a lawyer and CEO, who not only passes bad cheques, but also committs bank, insurance and credit card fraud.

The first quarter hour of 'I Love You Phillip Morris' sweeps you away with intense action, where a young Steven on learning he has been adopted, resolves he will be the best person he can be. He becomes a Georgia policeman when he grows up, plays the church organ, and marries Debbie (Leslie Mann), father's two children, infiltrates the police computer to find his real mother (Mary Louise Burke), who rebuffs him, which sends him into a tailspin. Following a nasty car crash, he vows he will never live a lie again, only to start living one lie after another.

He's gay and going for it, Steven moves to Florida , living a life of flamboyance, a South Beach existence on a Costco income, with his flamboyant boyfriend (Rodrigo Santoro). But, he discovers being gay is really expensive, which leads him to masquerade and fraud, kiting cheques and collecting maxed-out credit cards, eventually going to prison, where he meets blond, gentle Phillip Morris (McGregor), his cell mate. Morris becomes the love and motivating factor of his life (McGregor), as Russell spends the rest of the film, concocting elaborate escapes and masquerades to gain freedom for himself and his man.

Less of a comedy than a hilarious tragedy, Carrey and McGregor make a nice couple, whose onscreen romance, full of sweet, passionate devotion, steams up the screen with some hot and heavy necking. It doesn't alter the fact that Russell is a sociopath, whose first instinct when faced with difficulty, is to find a felonious way around it.