Cast: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy; Director: Seth Gordon; Screenplay: Craig Mazin; Editor: Peter Teschner Music: Christopher Lennertz; Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe; Producer: Scott Stuber, Jason Bateman, Pamela Abdy ; Distributor: Universal Studios; Running Time: 111 minutes; Genre: Crime, Comedy; Location: USA
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: V18 for
viewers 18 years old and above
MTRCB Rating: R16
Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) finally gets his big break
when he is offered top management position in a financial corporation which his
co-workers just built. However, his name gets associated with outlandish
spending and illegal transactions—his identity is stolen. Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is on a
shopping binge using Sandy’s credit card.
Such cases take more than a year to resolve and it would take about the
same time before his name is cleared. With his job and family at stake, Sandy
decides to track down who stole his identity which leads him to travel all the
way to Florida to capture the thief and bring him or her to justice. He gets to
catch his identity thief Diana and now he needs to bring her back to Denver,
but not without a series of misadventures along the way.
Identity Thief takes off with an
interesting premise relevant to the present age of information technology. There is a lot of genius in the idea of identity theft victim
meeting his thief. As the two meet, the audiences are in for a real hilarious
treat. The film takes advantage of its talented casts who are perfectly fit for
their roles. Bateman and McCarthy succeed as the odd couple in the movie. Their
tenacity and depth as actors, although quite underestimated in the film, has
made Identity Thief a worthy watch
as they are able to mix humor with a certain degree of intelligence. However,
the story could’ve focused more on the question of identity rather than stick
to the Hollywood slapstick formula. There are still the usual chase sequences
with guns and goons, stereotypes and clichés. These aspects are quite a
disappointment and shift the film away from its focus. But then again, the film
still has elicited plenty of laughs from the audience and maybe, that’s all
they need at this present time.
In this time and age when anyone can be someone or somebody, what
now is the essence of identity? What makes up real identity and how do we
define it? Such are the relevant
questions Identity Thief tries to
pose. The film provides some
answers in some lucid moments when it deals deep into the characters’ inner
motivations. While Sandy tries to clear up his identity to maintain and keep
status quo, Diana on the other side steals it in desperation to evade her real
self. Here, the audiences see contrast of two opposite characters, opposite
lifestyles, opposite upbringings. Despite the contrasts, the audiences are made
to realize what human beings commonly need that cuts across age, gender,
nationality, social class and even identity—that is the need to be loved and
respected. This is what Sandy gave to Diana in spite of and despite the
circumstances of their meeting. Sandy’s innate goodness contagiously affected
Diana that somehow made her realize her own goodness as well—that is her real
self and not the thief whom she used to believe she was. Such perhaps should be
every human being’s sense of identity. The film however tackles an adult theme
with moderate to heavy depictions of violence, vulgar language and sex. Thus,
CINEMA finds the film appropriate for mature audience only aged 18 and above.
