I Love You Philip Morris

This is one of those movies where the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" really applies since the trailers I saw truly buried the lead. The trailers would have you believe that this is a movie about a zany, prison love affair between the characters portrayed by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, and yes, that is a large part of the film. What the movie is really about is the life of Stephen Jay Russell, a confidence man in the vein of Frank Abagnale Jr., who has escaped from Texas prisons so many times that, my opinion is that he's been sentenced out of spite, he is currently serving a prison sentence set to end on July 12th, 2140. And while there are amusing bits to the story, it is not as madcap as the trailers would lead you to believe.

Biographical films are always so hard to summarize since they cover such a large expanse of time and like to touch on several self-contained anecdotes of a person's life. And this one is no different except that the story touches on multiple scams, prison escapes, and gaming the system to free a lover that the pace is pretty frenetic but handled exquisitely giving you a developing picture of an interesting individual. And it is a very likeable picture which is something I generally don't find with bio-pics of criminals because, at the end of the day, they are criminals and it is at times difficult to empathize with a self-centered character that is only out for themselves. And perhaps that is why Stephen Russell is so likeable. Most of the crimes he committed later in his career were for the man he loved, and I don't care about the politics of it, a good love story is still a good love story.

Rating: B+

Wild Target

It's the time old story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, classic misunderstanding and then they all live happily ever after. Except that here the boy is hired to kill the girl after she cons £900,000 off a real-estate tycoon with a fake Rembrandt. So not your standard romcom fare, but it's a nice twist on an old tale.

I'll be honest, the reason I watched this was because of the cast, and it's especially nice to see Bill Nighy in a leading role. And the cast works beautifully together. Nighy's Victor Maynard is understandably emotionally damaged considering not only his profession, but the fact that he is the latest in a line of assassins, and you can see and understand his almost immediate attraction to Emily Blunt's character Rose. Add in Rupert Grint as Tony and Victor can step into his own little nuclear family, giving him the human connection he so obviously is lacking. And as ridiculous as the premise looks on paper, it unfolds so organically that the suspension of disbelief was something that happened in the background of my enjoyment of the story.
 

The other thing about this that I really enjoyed was the "misunderstanding", that moment in almost every other romcom where one of the parties involved finds out that the other is not who they say they are. I hate the "misunderstanding". I always have because it never makes sense considering how much the two characters are supposed to be in love (I'm looking at you Katherine Heigle). But at least here, if Rose is wrong, she will be murdered, so I will let it slide. The ending does get a little formulaic, telegraphing its moves to the audience but overall the resolution works for me.

Martin Freeman's teeth are absolutely terrifying.

This is actually a remake of an older french film Cible Emouvante which I have not had a chance to watch yet as I can't find a copy, but if I ever do, I will revisit.
Rating: A-