A standing-room-only crowd filled the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown Auditorium Wednesday night to watch a screening of I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, before its Dec. 3 wide-release date.

The film, based on a novel written by Houston-based journalist Steve McVicker, follows the criminal trail and nomadic life of Houston police officer-turned-con-artist Steven Russell (Carey), who fell in love with fellow inmate, Phillip Morris (McGregor), and escaped from a Texas prison four times to be with him in the early 2000s.

The film, scheduled for U.S. release last year, was set back by legal problems with the distributing company Roadside Attractions, according to Entertainment Weekly magazine.

The auditorium also broke into proud applause at the beginning, when McVicker's byline appeared on a blue cloudy sky during the opening credits, and noticed his appearance onscreen in a cameo as a judge.

After the film, McVicker was caught between Terrys. Texas Commander of Special Operations Terry Cobbs, who as a fugitive tracker for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was responsible for several of Russell's captures, and Terry Jennings, who as Harris County assistant district has prosecuted the real-life Russell, sat down for a Q&A to discuss the facts behind the fiction.

Cobbs and Jennings explained to the audience the true nature of Russell's sugar-coated crimes in the movie. "Well he's not a violent guy, but I think he's a sociopath," Cobbs said. "He would just wreak havoc."

McVicker compared Russell to Frank Abagnale, who Catch Me If You Can is based on. Abagnale, despite his criminal history as a conman, managed to escape a life sentence —and now (appropriately) puts his Houdini skills to use as an American security consultant.

"He [Abagnale] was able to come out successful," McVicker said.

Cobbs and Jennings returned several times to the fact that Russell is probably a bad guy — and apparently Morris isn't all that innocent either.

"In real life, Phillip was just a gold digger," Jennings said. "Phillip is in it for Phillip, and I don't think he gives a damn about Steven."

So the love story's a sham and apparently, there was never a SWAT team involved in one of Russell's captures. Also, turns out Debbie, Russell's ex-wife played by Leslie Mann, was the only good "guy" of the group.

"A suitcase case of $50,000 that was transferred [from Russell] to Debbie, she returned all of it to the law," Jennings said.

One of McVicker's friends, criminal defense lawyer Les Ribnik, said the film left him wanting more.

"I'd like to know more details about how he worked the escapes," Ribnik said. "I suspect he was a dime a dozen — you don't have to be a genius to do credit card scams, but you do have to be a genius to break out of prison."

The discussion ended on a hopeful note.

"This was like the straightest gay film I've ever seen," an audience member said to loud applause. "Maybe this is the beginning of a new trend in Hollywood of making gay movies more accessible to straight audiences."

Maybe so. Oscar what do you think?