Identity Thief Review

Identity Thief

2 stars out of 4

By Brett Takeshita

Identity Thief is the movie that every critic seems to love to hate. Well, I finally saw this financially successful film. Is it as bad as everyone says? No. In fact, it's a lot better than I expected. However, that still doesn't make it a particularly good film either.

Sandy Patterson (Jason Reitman) is the father and husband who exudes normalcy. He has a beautiful wife (Amanda Peet) and two wonderful daughters. He works a rather safe but unsatisfactory office job in financing. His boss (Jon Favreau) is a complete jerk who undermines his employees and takes bigger paychecks for himself. Despite a poor work environment, Sandy is content with his life. Then, something terrible happens: his identity is stolen. He finds that his credit cards are maxing out in Florida, even though he lives in Colorado. He soon discovers that Diana (Melissa McCarthy), an insane and conniving woman, is the one responsible for this madness -- the madness that risks both his job and his financial well-being. Thus, Sandy sets off for Florida to retrieve Diana and bring her to Colorado in hopes that she will confess of her crimes. 

Identity Thief is problematic largely because of Craig Mazin's faulty script. The film combines two sects of the comedy genre: the buddy comedy and the road trip adventure. Sandy and Diana find themselves in all sorts of crazy situations while on their trip. As they spend more time with each other, they learn more about themselves and ignite a sort of strange friendship. Combining these two narrative elements is completely fine. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem, though, resides in the fact that Identity Thief just isn't that funny. There are a few laughs to be had, but they don't come often enough. The film is sometimes amusing and occasionally entertaining. But funny? Not really.

Much of the humor in this screenplay falls flat. For example, one of the running jokes in the film is that Sandy is a girl's name, and therefore, it's funny that a dude is named Sandy. Are you laughing yet? I wasn't. Sure, it's okay to poke fun at the name once or twice, but the fact that the characters mention the girliness of Sandy's name every few minutes is just plain ridiculous. Throughout Identify Thief, we get multiple jokes that are recycled repeatedly throughout the film, which ultimately makes the film grow stale and unoriginal.

Another major problem with the script is the length. The film is nearly two hours long but feels much longer than that -- especially during the slog that is the middle. Seriously, a solid 15 or 20 minutes could have easily been removed from the movie, and Identity Thief would have moved along better. In fact, trimming the film might have even made it stronger. When you're watching this film, you'll feel as if you're going on this road trip with these nutcases in real time. That's not good.

Despite a less-than-stellar screenplay, the actors in this film do their absolute most to sell this movie as best they can. Once again, Melissa McCarthy nails every single scene -- her comedic timing impeccable, her physical comedy sensational, and her sheer effort valiant. She even masters the awkwardly placed emotional scenes in the movie, where she has to ball and sob and breakdown amidst all this chaos. It's a truly wonderful performance, one that deserves better than this movie.

Jason Bateman is also solid. He has a nice chemistry with McCarthy, and the fruition of their characters' friendship is genuinely charming. However, I feel that Bateman is underutilized here. His character is never as funny as he could be, and thus, Bateman doesn't truly get to show off all of his impressive comedic skills. This is a good performance, but it could have been better if he was given more to do.

Credit should be given to director Seth Gordon for developing a lovely and occasionally touching friendship between his two main characters. He handles this budding relationship deftly and injects the film -- especially the end -- with true warmth. However, the rest of Seth's directorial choices are iffy. The action is never as exciting or zippy as it could be. The comedy can go from hilarious to flat in a matter of seconds. The whole film feels like it's a mish-mash of good ideas that never quite click together. I suppose that Gordon tries to make this film work, but he stumbles more often than he succeeds.

From its lazy jokes to its gaping plotholes (someone please explain to me exactly why the mobsters and thugs are chasing after Diana, and what their motivations are), Identity Thief fails to deliver. It's a shame because this film could have been great. After all, when you have McCarthy and Bateman in a single movie, it's bound to soar. However, Identity Thief barely lands with a thud. Two stars out of four.