Q: Why was I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS’ release indefinitely delayed?

Q: Why was I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS’ release indefinitely delayed?

Apr 12

A: Homophobia. Probably. I’m just guessing.

A movie in which Jim Carrey falls in love with and shares several intimate scenes with Ewan McGregor, written and directed by the writers of the deliciously black Bad Santa, should have enough box-office draw to warrant a serious release, but we’ve just been informed that Consolidated Pictures Group, the film’s distributors, have backed out at the last minute and left Phillip Morris in limbo. Why?

Well, America’s serious blockbuster season is mere weeks away from revving up; we’ve already had Clash Of The Titans, and with Iron Man 2 just weeks away it could be that CPG didn’t want to have their smaller film compete against the bigger, marketing-blitzed ones. That’s pretty silly, because the market that goes to smaller indie flicks goes to see smaller indie flicks regardless of when they’re released. They’re what’s called loyal, and intelligent, and they know they’ve probably got limited time to see smaller films like this, so they can just wait a month and then go see Iron Man 2, it’s not like the movie will be better in its first few days of release than later on down the track.

The most probable answer is that the distributor just got cold feet about releasing a mainstream movie about homosexuality, especially in the lead-up to the testosterone-fueled summer blockbuster season. People should be looking past the nature of the relationship and looking at I Love You Phillip Morris for what it is: a black romantic comedy about a con man and the fellow he falls in love with while in prison. It’s got a pair of fine actors in it, and an original, refreshing premise, but I guess the world (read: conservative America) isn’t ready for a movie about gay people.

Remember what happened when Brokeback Mountain and Milk came out? How they were picketed and rallied against and totally ripped apart at every opportunity — oh wait, didn’t they both go bananas come awards season? Hmph.

Maybe if the two main characters were replaced with Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johanssen you’d go see this movie, you backwards misogynist humbugs, you.