If you didn't know this film was based on a true story, you'd dismiss it for being completely ridiculous. But, truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction, and this true story is about as strange as it gets.

Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell, a man who begins as a law enforcement officer and ends up a con man, faking falls for cash, using "borrowed" credit cards, even trying court cases without anything close to a law degree. Not surprisingly, he ends up in prison. But it's not all bad, because there he finds his true love, Phillip Morris, a quiet unassuming young prisoner played by Ewan McGregor. In Carrey's efforts to be with the love of his life, he commits even more crimes, and the film flies from the absurd to the ridiculous. But it really happened!

Carrey seems to be having fun, running around in expensive suits or mesh undies or the occasional prisoner jumpsuit, leaping, falling and using his rubberized face to advantage. But it's the sweeter, quieter moments where you're reminded that this guy really can act. And McGregor manages to walk the fine line between sweet guy and sickeningly syrupy guy...most of the time.

This film is odd and uneven, leaping from slapstick to suicidal so fast you'll get whiplash, but I'm glad I saw it.