IDENTITY THIEF
Director : Seth Gordon
Year : 2013
Genre : Comedy
Rating : **
Mixing it's ethics to an overwhelmingly misjudged degree, blowing it's character arcs way out of the bounds of reasoning and forcing multiple storylines on us, 'Identity Thief' is a complete car crash of a comedy from director Seth Gordon. Starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, 'Identity Thief' tells the story of a woman who steals the identity of a man to commit major credit card fraud and buy thousands of dollars worth of junk. It is only when a picture surfaces of the criminal that he intends to capture her himself and save his job and potentially his life. Making a central character so unlikable is an interesting idea and McCarthy has fun playing such a selfish human being. But by the end, when backstory has been given and the movie comes to it's ridiculous climax, 'Identity Thief' falls completely flat on it's face. While the 2 main actors have good chemistry together and Bateman and McCarthy have fun with their parts, the script is weak, the comedy is badly written and both characters end up becoming hugely unlikable. Overall, 'Identity Thief' is a very mean spirited comedy that takes pleasure from the suffering of others and takes pity on those who really do not deserve it.
Jason Bateman plays Sandy, a wealthy businessman who recently becomes the VP for a new upcoming company in Denver. In a very happy family with his beautiful wife and 2 adorable children, everything seems to be coming up roses for Sandy. But when his name and credit card details are stolen by a mysterious thief, he is accused of theft, assault and even narcotic distribution. Arrested by the police and with his job on the line, Sandy's life suddenly takes a turn for the worst. However, a picture soon arises of the criminal and he intends to capture the identity thief in Florida so that she can be arrested and his life can go back to normal. Travelling to the Sunshine State, Sandy eventually finds her, handcuffs the thief and despite her reluctance, begins to drive her all the way back across the country to Denver. But as a series of unfortunate accidents bring them closer together and soon Sandy begins to realise that there maybe more to this woman than meets the eye. However, they soon become targets for local assassins and before he knows it, Sandy and the thief are caught in a violent game of cat and mouse.
Director Seth Gordon is probably best known for his 2010 hit movie 'Horrible Bosses', which told the story of 3 men who endeavour to kill each others bosses. Obviously taking it's riff from the Alfred Hitchcock classic 'Strangers On A Train', 'Horrible Bosses' was an unfunny mess of film that delighted in the ogling of women and the comedic value of rape and sexual abuse. Despite it's major ethical flaws, 'Horrible Bosses' was a huge blockbuster, making nearly $210 million at the worldwide box office. Now, Gordon returns with 'Identity Thief' which is just as unethical as his last movie, but at least it doesn't revel in misogyny and molestation. Enjoying the effects of false accusations, pain and suffering, Gordon lingers on the hurt in peoples eye and fails to empathise with any of those affected by the criminal activity. While we are given a few rare moments to see how the identity theft destroys Sandy's life, Gordon immediately cuts to a scene of McCarthy spending an extortionate amount of money and committing various acts of assault. The dichotomy in tone between these 2 scenes cut so close together make it very difficult for us to judge how the director feels about the crimes as well. Clearly he thinks that the scenes with McCarthy are funny and we spend too much time with her and too little with Jason Bateman. It is as if Gordon is trying to make us complicit with McCarthy by saying, ''Yeah, she's committing crimes, but isn't she funny?''. No, she isn't. She is a selfish, manipulative woman who deserves to locked up and no amount of pratfalls, burping or swearing is going to change that. These beginning scenes give 'Identity Thief' a very dour tone and unfortunately this doesn't change, even when we are given almost unbelievable character developments and backstory which just endeavour to make us that bit more empathetic with McCarthy.
While the screenplay may be all over the place and the ethics are as scrambled as a bowl of spaghetti, Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy work well together on screen and it is clear that they are good friends on and off screen. Unfortunately, just as is the problem with the beginning, we spend too much time with the antics of McCarthy and we are treated to dozens of scenes of her making Bateman uncomfortable, hitting people in the throat and trying to justify her actions. Bateman is good as the everyday man who is trapped by this selfish person, but by the end of the movie, he commits crimes that make him no different to his supposed opposite. This sudden swap in opinions and ethics really threw me and began to make me loathe his character as well as McCarthy meaning that 'Identity Thief' contains two character's that I can't stand and who I would gladly see locked up.
As mentioned earlier, the heart of the problem with 'Identity Thief'' is that McCarthy's character named Diana is so unlikable and selfish at the beginning of the picture that we immediately hate her. She enjoys stealing the lives of others and fails to understand the consequences on those who suffer. Materialistic, rude, violent and completely without morals, Diana is one of the most unlikable characters in all of 2013. But to change her characters motivation, we are given a backstory involving abandonment, a disruptive childhood and a search for oneself. These moments seem completely false and only add to the overall mean spirited nature of 'Identity Thief'. I am all for character development and I enjoy watching story arcs and narrative take a turn that I don't expect; but not when it seems just wrong and completely forced. To her credit, McCarthy acts very well in these scenes which are much more interesting than the moments in which she hits someone in the windpipe. They show her acting talents and in any other film, we would completely sympathise with her due her conviction and raw emotion. But completely shifting the tone of the character and changing her intentions, Gordon and scriptwriter Craig Mazin ironically makes McCarthy that little bit more hateable. Just because someone has a traumatic childhood does not mean that they can just commit crimes to deal with their grief. What a load of balderdash.
If it wasn't for the chemistry between Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, 'Identity Thief' would be one of the worst movies of the year. With a completely ridiculous moral backbone, very little comedy and a forced and 'clearly made for a sequel' ending, 'Identity Thief' is an obstacle course in which we have to endeavour one painfully unfunny scene to the next until we get to the end and take a long deserved rest and break from the suffering we have just endured. Both McCarthy and Bateman are terrifically talented comedic actors and given the right script and director, they could produce a movie that could be truly brilliant. Sadly, in the hands of Seth Gordon, a director known for his moral ambiguity, they are given nothing to do but hit ten bells out of each other and throw insults. First 'Horrible Bosses', now this. Go Seth Gordon. No really, just go.
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