The new, happy-go-lucky ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’

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For a while, the shot perhaps most frequently associated with the Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor romance ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ was the one below, which ran on numerous blogs during and long after the movie’s Sundance premiere in 2008, though it was never part of any official advertising campaign.

It was a bold image, and one that did speak to the film’s tenderness. But as the movie about a con man (Carrey) and the man he falls in love with in jail (McGregor) finally gets a release -- after months of distribution problems and nearly two years since said Sundance premiere -- the actual campaign is taking a different tack. To the left is the image on the newly released poster (click on it for a closer look), in which a far more carefree vibe is peddled, the kind that says that what we’re selling here is nothing but light comedy (even though in actuality the movie is far from that).

It’s understandable why you’d want to take a pretty dark Sundance movie and position it as your typical jolly ol’ Jim Carrey laughfest; after all, the more twisted truth of the film doesn’t necessarily scream date night. And yep, more people might come out for the movie as a result -- but we’ll see if they’re thrown when they do.

-- Steven Zeitchik
twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Upper photo: ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ poster. Credit: Freestyle Releasing

Lower photo: ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ screen shot. Credit: Europa Corp.