Guest Review: Identity Thief

By Koshcat

I watched Identity Thief with my wife a few weeks ago. It stars Jason Bateman as Sandy Patterson, an accountant for a large investment company located in Denver. This is a light comedy that is worth checking out despite a few flaws.

Plot

The story begins with Jason Bateman discovering that he has been lied to by his company. They’ve claimed they can’t afford bonuses or raises because of the recession, but Bateman finds himself called upon to print out large bonus checks for a few of the executives. This angers him, so when he is asked by some of his colleagues to leave the company and start a new firm with them, he decides to go for it even though this is a big risk for him because he is only just getting by with a pregnant wife and two kids.

After they leave the company, they seek to arrange a loan to capitalize the new firm. When they apply for the loan, however, they discover that Bateman’s credit is worthless. He also finds himself arrested on an outstanding warrant. It turns out that right at the same time Bateman left the company, a woman in Florida had stolen his identity and was living large off his credit. She had even gotten arrested under his name, which leads to the warrant.

Bateman is released when the arrest records show that the police are looking for a woman. But without clearing his credit, the new company can’t get the loan they need to get started, and returning to his old job is an impossibility. He has one week to clear everything up to save the company. Unfortunately, the police advise him that it will probably take months to resolve this matter. Needing to solve this crisis within a week, Bateman makes a deal to go to Florida, find this woman, bring her back, and get her to admit to the crime. The movie then becomes about his attempt to pull that off.

What Worked, What Didn’t

The movie itself is entertaining. It is kind of a rom-com but not exactly as there isn’t any romance between the two but they do become friends. Melissa McCarthy plays Diana, the thief in question. Melissa is a stand-up comedian and the chemistry between her and Bateman from their first confrontation to traveling across country to the end is pretty good. She is quite funny but I will warn you that this is not for children. Bateman plays the straight man well and he is very likable.

Bateman: You’re diabolical.
McCarthy: Thank you.
Bateman: That’s not a compliment.
McCarthy: I know.

In some ways, the film’s heart is in the right place too. The funny setup helps you forgot that a regular guy is trying to apprehend a woman larger than him and force her across the country in violation of all kinds of laws. He has found himself in a deep hole and only he can dig himself out. This is a standard idea in films. For her part, when Diana gets to know Sandy and his family she realizes that what she did wasn’t a victimless crime and she decides to do the right thing... eventually. I see these as conservative ideas or at least ethical principles; only you can really help yourself out and when you make a mistake and hurt someone you should accept the punishment. I found that pleasant.

That said, I do have a couple reservations, however. In particular, there were several issues I found to be quite irritating. First, they made Diana into an innocent victim of her childhood. She doesn’t know her real identity and she doesn’t like who she really is so she uses others’ identities. See, it isn’t her fault. It was her mother’s. Such crap. There are plenty of criminals from both good and bad backgrounds and just because you’ve had a hard life is no reason to hurt other people. She is choosing to steal identities, she is not forced to do so. And while she may feel like this is a “victimless” crime because she doesn’t know or see the victims, that’s just an excuse to justify this to herself.

Secondly, I have met people like Diana and generally they are sociopaths. They cannot be trusted and they do not feel that the regular rules apply to them. They can be nice and even help you at times but only if it is in their best interest. As soon as they can they will screw you over and run. There will never be a true epiphany where they change who they are, yet this film, as Hollywood always does, implies that people like this can be made to go straight if they just realize who they’ve hurt. That’s simply not true.

Another issue that bothers me is that the film justifies Bateman’s crimes. Basically, they do a great job making Bateman out a regular up-standing guy. But then they have him perform a crime that he gets away with to make the story work. And rather than pointing out how wrong this is, the film sends the message that his crime was excused because the victim of his crime was his ex-boss, who is a complete a$$hole (this was another issue, making all the upper executives greedy a$$holes, but this is so common in movies it’s par for the course so this didn't bother me too much). Again, crimes are crimes and we should not be suggesting that a crime is only wrong when it’s done to the wrong people.

Finally, I struggled a bit with the setup itself. This new company is trying to capitalize with millions of dollars. If you’re talking about that much money, why not spend a few thousand dollars on a top notch lawyer or bounty hunter to fix this without having a civilian illegally force a person to come with him across the country. Of course, that would have made for a boring story, but it always made the story feel a little contrived.

Anyhow, if you are in the mood for a relatively light comedy, especially if you like the kind with comedy duos, I think you will enjoy this movie.