Identity Thief

Cast of Characters:
Sandy Bigelow Patterson - Jason Bateman
Diana - Melissa McCarthy
Harold Cornish - Jon Favreau
Trish Patterson - Amanda Peet
Julian - Tip “T.I.” Harris
Marisol - Genesis Rodriguez
Detective Reilly - Morris Chestnut
Daniel Casey - John Cho
Skiptracer - Robert Patrick
Big Chuck - Eric Stonestreet

Director - Seth Gordon
Screenplay - Craig Mazin
Rated R for sexual content and language

      In 2011, Seth Gordon directed the box office and critical smash Horrible Bosses, featuring an all-star cast that included Jason Bateman. Now in 2013, both Gordon and Bateman team up again along with Mike & Molly's Melissa McCarthy in Identity Thief.

      Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Jason Bateman) - named after the great Sandy Koufax by his Dodgers fan father - is an account executive for a financial firm in Denver, Colorado. His boss, Harold Cornish (Jon Favreau), much to the displeasure of Sandy and his co-worker Daniel Casey (John Cho), is cutting back on the employee bonuses. After all, in Harold’s mind, Sandy’s paid to do exactly what his wife can do on Quicken at home. Fed up with their boss, Sandy and Daniel, along with a few other employees leave the company to start their own.

      On his way to work, Sandy stops to get gas, only to find out his credit card keeps getting declined. He calls the card company to settle the situation and finds out he’s apparently over $10,000 in debt. Making matters worse, he’s arrested afterward. Detective Reilly (Morris Chestnut) explains to him that he missed out on his court date for assault and public intoxication in Winter Park, Florida. Sandy explains that he doesn’t know what is going on and that he certainly hasn’t been to Winter Park. That’s when both Sandy and Detective Reilly discover Sandy has been a victim of identity theft thanks in part to Diana (Melissa McCarthy), clearly taking advantage of Sandy’s unisex name... about ten grand’s worth of advantage. Later on, at work, it’s brought to Sandy’s attention through Detective Reilly that he’s involved in drug possession. Sandy, wanting to clear his name and save his job, realizes he can find Diana, through a previous hair appointment call on his phone, and bring her back to Colorado. His wife Trish (Amanda Peet) isn’t all that thrilled about him possibly putting himself in danger, but he assures his wife, by showing her Diana’s mugshot, that it’ll be alright. The way he sees it, she’s Hobbit height, so it should be a cake-walk.

      Well, wouldn’t you know it, it ends up being a lot more difficult for Sandy than he expected. You see, Diana’s quite the feisty firecracker, and won't go down without a fight. He finally ends up convincing her to go with him to Denver but only by promising not to get the police involved. Along the way, they're followed by two dealers, Julian (Tip “T.I.” Harris) and Marisol (Genesis Rodriguez), of which Diana gave bad credit cards to their boss. Also involved in their trip is a bounty hunter known as Skiptracer (Robert Patrick), who's enlisted by Marisol to kill Diana and anyone with her. There's also Big Chuck (Eric Stonestreet), a rowdy barfly Diana takes a liking to.

      I was looking forward to seeing this. I’ve loved Jason Bateman since TV’s Arrested Development and Melissa McCarthy was terrific in Bridesmaids (which she received a supporting actress Oscar nomination for), so you’d think pairing the two together would achieve comic gold. There’s no reason to think otherwise. Unfortunately, it falls flat, but not at the fault of Bateman and McCarthy. They’re the two that keep this film from being much worse than it could’ve been. Writer Craig Mazin goes for character overkill by scripting way too many supporting characters than necessary. Jon Favreau and Morris Chestnut are both fine actors, but they’re clearly phoning it in with throwaway roles as the world’s worst boss and a detective I’m surprised graduated the Police Academy let alone got promoted to detective respectively. Eric Stonestreet is great in TV’s hit Modern Family, and here I could’ve maybe been okay with his part had it been one or two scenes shorter. The biggest problem I had with the film was the pointless subplot involving the dealers. I don’t know why Mazin felt the conflicting contrast of personalities between Bateman and McCarthy couldn't work, so a cliche pair of dealers as superfluous villains chasing after them is what’s needed. It really takes the film nowhere, and I honestly felt like I was the only one in the packed theater room not laughing when those moments arrived on screen. To the film’s credit, it does have its inspired moments. Like I said, Bateman and McCarthy are terrific comic performers, and it was the scenes between the two of them that got the laughs out of me. The writer should’ve realized that instead of adding way too many unnecessary characters and subplots. You saw the scene I posted here. This film needed more of that.

      Identity Thief tries to emulate classic road trip comedies like Midnight Run and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but winds up coming short. I really wanted to like this movie, but overall the most I can recommend for it is maybe a rental when it comes out on disc. If you do rent it, while you’re at it, throw in Midnight Run and Planes, Trains and Automobiles as well. Here’s hoping that maybe Bateman and McCarthy can team up again in a much more worthy comedy. They definitely have what it takes to make that happen. I give Identity Thief a C+ (★★½).