Early Oscar buzz for Jim Carrey as a love-bitten gay con man in "I Love You Phillip Morris" has died down and now we probably know why, thanks to the trailer. It looks a bit too silly and camp, but Variety hails it as "hilarious tragedy" that seems to work as a good film, which recently scored a nomination for best breakthrough direction (Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) at the Gotham Awards. It rates a good score of 79 at Rotten Tomatoes.

Playing gay is usually an Oscar-savvy move for straight actors. It worked for Sean Penn ("Milk"), Charlize Theron ("Monster") and Tom Hanks ("Philadelphia"). This year the ploy is whipping up lots of Oscar hoopla for Annette Bening ("The Kids Are All Right"). But poor Jim Carrey is laughed off by academy members, who've never nominated him. Meantime, over at the Golden Globes, Carrey won twice — once for drama ("The Truman Show," 1998), once for comedy ("Man on the Moon," 1999) — and nabbed four other noms. There's a good chance he'll be back again this year, assuming "Phillip Morris" is placed in the comedy/musical categories.