Review: ‘Identity Thief’

“Identity Thief” is the new comedy from Seth Gordon, who made the great documentary “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” as well as the rather funny comedy “Horrible Bosses,” but I do fear that this current movie we have here about a woman who steals a man’s personal information in order to run up ridiculous credit charges and bills only to have that man track her down as a form of a generic everyman justice is much closer to Mr. Gordon’s “Four Christmases,” a rather lackluster and unfunny Christmas comedy that everyone has all but forgotten by this point. Except Vince Vaughn. Surely it keeps him up at night, haunting him.

And maybe this one will keep Jason Bateman up at nights. But probably not. Bateman (Horrible Bosses) plays the poor sap who gets his identity stolen, which happens right at the outset of the movie and in a manner which is almost insulting in both it’s simplicity and implied laziness on both the part of the thief, played by Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), and the movie’s screenwriter, played by Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, The Hangover Part II). When the Denver police, here personified by Morris Chestnut (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory), pretty much refuse to do any work to get the thief, who resides in Florida, Bateman’s character is forced to go to Florida to track the lady down and bring her back himself to clear his financial name, which happens to be important to him because he works in the financial sector doing financial things which aren’t important, it’s really just all about the Benjamins at this point. So he goes to Florida, finds her, they start driving their way back to Colorado and along the way they get chased by some gangsters and hitmen for some vague, barely established reasons.

Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that the worst thing about “Identity Thief” is the misuse of the great cast. Obviously this movie is all centered around McCarthy, and all problems aside, she is great and walks away from this thing without a scratch on her because she is that entertaining to watch. But Bateman isn’t given much to do, so he just does his Bateman thing. And then they got Genesis Rodriguez and T.I. playing the aforementioned gangsters, doing nothing to rise about the stereotypical roles they’ve been handed, and Robert Patrick playing a totally different hitman and whose main characteristic seems to be that he is Robert Patrick and he seems to be in need of a bath. The great Jonathan Banks gets wasted in two forgettable scenes that apparently set up the gangsters involvement, and Jon Favreau shows up for one scene as a dickhead boss, and while he gets one of the funniest lines in the movie (a line about Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and how it pertains to modern American financial culture), he is also quickly forgotten about as a character until much later when his name is only needed to further the plot and nothing else. Amanda Peet plays doting wife who takes Xanax, and John Cho is given one of the least funny roles in this comedy that is already lacking on the funny.

Also completely wasted in this movie and not explored at all? The use of Central Florida as one of the main locations of the film, specifically, the locale of the thief and Bateman’s destination. At one point, his character even tells his children that he has to go to “pretty much the worst place on Earth.” Yet when they get to Florida (Winter Park, Florida, mind you, which I found very oddly specific), they do nothing to establish that this was set in Florida, or that Florida is different from anywhere else in this country. They didn’t even bother trying to show the area she lived in and frequented as being affluent or rich in any way whatsoever, yet just a little bit of research will tell you that Winter Park, Florida is full of hoighty-toighty, money-spending mofos, and as a matter of fact, Park Avenue, where all the people with money go to be seen and to spend their money, has quite a bit of character and would make for an interesting location in a big movie like this.

But nope! No establishment of Florida as a place whatsoever, just a quick line calling the state terrible and then nothing to back it up. Would have been fun if they actually showed why his character disliked Florida so much, but nope, too much work. And speaking of research, after doing just a little bit of research, it seems this whole movie was shot in Atlanta, even the Colorado sections were shot in the Atlanta, which is why the America in this movie looks like a generic southern state.

Also, I’m calling out the movie for setting part of the story in Winter Park, Florida, and then use a generic helicopter shot of a beach as your establishing shot of Winter Park, which is about 90 minutes away from the closest beach. Nice work, guys.

The biggest problem with the movie, aside from these glaring misuses of cast and location, is the weird lack of development for the McCarthy character, which she kills by the way. Just wanted to put that in here again, that whenever she is allowed to go off and have fun, she’s a blast to watch, especially since her character’s sociopathic tendencies are being unfurled on someone else and not you the viewer. Her character is introduced as a lonely, despicable person, quick to buy “friends” with drinks bought with stolen identity money, but we are supposed to feel bad for her because the stuck up make up counter girls at some random department store snicker at her when she peruses through the make up stuff. And also because she seems to sort of feel bad about her actions when she is actually confronted with the people she is ripping off, and makes sad faces as she feels guilty for a second, and then the next scene, BAM!, she is back to her over the top shtick.

Then the movie takes a turn at the end and decides that these characters need to get all emotional and start liking each other and then they slap on a sentimental ending that is totally unearned and ultimately makes no sense because it amount to Bateman’s character simply learning that he has to be more of an asshole sometimes to get what he wants and McCarthy’s character learns what again? Nothing really, not in the way she’s presented in this movie. She’s just a rascal, through and through, never changing, except for in the moment when the plot necessitates.

Okay, so it’s not that good. Which is a shame cause it’s a decent premise and there is a lot of talent behind this one but the lack of character development and really lack of a good story to support this premise does this movie in.