Carrey at His Manic Best (or Worst) in Phillip Morris

Some critics are head-over-heels for I Love You Phillip Morris; others feel quite the opposite about the film, in which Jim Carrey plays a gay conman. (It's currently favored by 76% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, though audiences give it a lesser 55%.)

• At the New York Times, Stephen Holden loves the picture: “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.”

• Peter Travers, who reviews the based-on-a-true-story flick in Rolling Stone, notes that “it's one crazy love story, but Carrey and (Ewan) McGregor make it work by making us buy the romance as the real thing.”
• But Joe Neumaier slams the movie in the New York Daily News, saying it “not only blasts gay stereotypes back decades, it could actually make people wish for a third Ace Ventura movie. Both of those are an accomplishment, though neither is a compliment.”

(More Jim Carrey stories.)