IDENTITY THIEF – The Review

Here’s a big step toward a (hopefully) long career in film comedy stardom. Two years ago this Summer, Melissa McCarthy exploded on the big screen (after paying her dues on TV and small film comedy bits) in the surprise smash hit BRIDESMAIDS, stealing almost every scene and nabbing a much deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, Since then she’s been toiling away on her day gig starring in TV’s “Mike & Molly”, hosting a superb episode of Saturday Night Live, and destroying her scene-mates in a small role in the recent THIS IS 40. Now, she’s ready to go for the gold. IDENTITY THIEF is her first big movie lead (well sharing the lead with vet Jason Bateman) and THE HEAT with Oscar winner Sandra Bullock is just around the corner. But can she carry a lead role on her petite shoulders? Sure she killed opposite lady comics like Kristen Wiig, so how’s her sparring with the formidably funny Mr. Bateman? Do they connect as a team or are they acting in their own separate farces (like Jack Black and Michael Cera in the dismal YEAR ONE)? Buckle up and hang on!

Sandy (like the baseball icon Sandy Koufax, ya’ know!) Patterson (Bateman) is a happy-go-lucky nice guy numbers- cruncher in a Denver investment firm. Sure, he’s got a jerk boss (Jon Favreau), but he’s also got a gorgeous wife (Amanda Peet) and two lovely little daughters (and another child on the way). Things are improving when a co-worker (John Cho) asks him to be part of a new company and get a bigger salary. Then the bottom drops out of his life. Seems that Florida native Diana (McCarthy) has run up several thousands of dollars in credit card debt in his name. Oh, and she’s skipped on a drunk and disorderly arrest warrant. The police hassle the real Sandy at work. The Denver PD can’t extradite the fake Sandy, so the only way to clear things up is for said phony be brought to Colorado. The new boss wants to fire him, but he decides to give Sandy a week to clear things up. He then tracks Diane down to Winter Haven, Florida, but he’s not the only one on her trail. Two enforcers (T.I. and Genesis Rodriguez), sent by a jailed drug kingpin (Jonathan Banks), want her for selling them bonus credit cards. And a scraggily skip tracer (Robert Patrick) hired by a collection agency is also pursuing Ms.D. Can Sandy keep her in tow, evade the other aggravated parties, and return to Denver before those seven grace days are up?

So how’d the BRIDESMAIDS MVP do? Well, about as well as possible considering the thin material. Ms. McCarthy totally commits to the slapstick antics (at time she seems to be human Silly Putty). She never holds back whether bouncing off a car or delivering her go-to defensive tactic: the punch in the throat (to be honest, severed tracheas aren’t that funny). She lets us see Diana weighing every option through her wild, expressive overly-shadowed eyes. What doesn’t work is the attempts at pathos. A way-too-long Dinner exchange about her dismal childhood wants us to sympathize with her blight, much like John Candy’s character in the vastly superior PLANES,TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES. Uh,uh. This doesn’t excuse her indulgent, selfish criminal behavior in the least. There have been far too many TV news magazine profiles recently about victims of ID theft for us to brush off her sprees. At least McCarthy does have some chemistry with Bateman. He too commits to the comedy, but his style is more of the straight man reacting sometimes passive-aggressively to the lunatics around him. Of course he honed this character from his TV stint on the classic “Arrested Development”(owing a bit to the other TV sane men at the heart of a crazy storm like Bob Newhart in his sitcoms and Eddie Albert in “Green Acres”). While Ms.M scores with her pratfalls, Mr. B delivers with low-key razor-sharp insults. McCarthy is joined by another Emmy-winning TV sitcom pro, “Modern Family”‘s Eric Stonestreet (the out-and-proud Cam) as a the stetson-sporting “Big” Chuck in an uncomfortable athletic motel room romp. He still fares better than several other comic actors that are given little to do. Peet just looks worried, but supportive. Cho (yup, Harold himself) mostly glares. It is good to Favreau in front of the cameras again, but his smarmy boss act is too brief. T.I. grabs a few laughs as an urban hitman fish-out-of-water, but Patrick’s crazed redneck hunter is more fun. It’s a strong comic support team who aren’t really given enough opportunity to truly shine.

The biggest problem with the film is its interminable length. Has Judd Apatow fever swept the studios? Can no one now make comedies that can clock in under 100 minutes? It truly feels as if we’re driving from Florida to Colorado with these two. Do they really need two sets of pursuers tracking the two Sandys? This provides the film makers a chance to indulge in some often brutal violence (perhaps mimicking the Hangover flicks or more likely PINEAPPLE EXPRESS). Gunshots and gushing wounds seem out-of-place as does a painful attack by mother nature in the deep woods. Bateman’s Sandy is a bit of a prim, but he doesn’t deserve this abuse. I will give them credit for not taking the film into fantasy funland for the final scenes. Crimes do have consequences. There are some big laughs sprinkled liberally throughout IDENTITY THIEF, but they would work much better if the script had been given another going over. One things for sure, Melissa McCarthy is a film star, a new movie comedy queen. And she deserves, and will hopefully star in, much better showcases for her talents.

3 Out of 5 Stars