Actors Jason Bateman (L) and Melissa McCarthy arrive at the premiere of Universal Pictures' "Identity Thief" at the Village Theatre on February 4, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.
Identity Thief
Tagline: Is this the face of a sucker?
In Seth Gordon’s new movie Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy has a coveted role. The director of Horrible Bosses has cast new it-girl McCarthy in a role where, at the outset, she has seemingly unlimited funds at her disposal in Miami to shop until she drops. And then she probably shops some more. The only problem (for her, at least) is the way she’s buying these goods: with an ID belonging to “Sandy Bigelow Patterson,” who happens to be an accounts rep (Jason Bateman) in far-off state. Cue the drama.
Can the real Patterson confront the woman? Will he be able to get her the 2,000 miles to Denver? And how many other hypothetical questions with glaringly obvious answers can we possibly ask in the space of one paragraph?
But the reviewers also have questions, and they seem to be asking why you’d bother spending your money — or even someone else’s — to watch Identity Thief. “McCarthy gets bashed about like a Stooge, and she bashes back with riotous abandon. Sadly, the rest of the movie is a shambles,” notes the Village Voice. And Time Out New York is even less enamored. “No matter how many times Identity Thief switches tracks, nothing works — it fails as a star vehicle, a recession-era satire, a WTF white-collar-grunt revenge tale, a Midnight Run–style buddy flick, a gross-out laughfest and a bathetic tale of broken souls. No amount of stolen guises can fix it.”