Identity Thief (2013) - Seth Gordon

Sandy Patterson lives a modest life, working as an accountant in Denver, Colorado where he supports his wife and two children.  One day Sandy discovers that his identity has been stolen by a harmless-looking woman in Miami.  In an effort to save his identity, and his new job which promises financial security for his family, Sandy travels halfway across the United States to confront this woman and get his identity back.   Seth Gordon's Identity Thief is a lazy comedy that relies far too heavily on its two central performers to carry the film.  Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy are well cast in their respecitive roles and if you're a fan of either of these two, you know exactly what to expect.  I personally find Melissa McCarthy's whole shtick tiresome so I really had little fun with this film outside of a few nice awkward comedic moments from Bateman.  One of the most laughable aspects of Identity Thief is its sentimentalality towards Melissa McCarthy's Diana.  The film wants to rationalize this character who spends her life living off of others hard work by lazily showing how she came from a broken home.  The film wants us to feel sorry for this character and relate to her as a victim of circumstance but it all just comes off as terribly cliché and lazy.  It's almost as if the film forgets it's a comedy towards the end getting so wrapped up in the sentimental aspect of McCarthy's character to the point of it just becoming silly.  Essentially Identity Thief is like Todd Phillips's Due Date, in that it's another mean-spirited, lazy Planes, Trains and Automobiles rip-off  that is full of lazy subplots that go nowhere and characters which are simply not endearing or interesting. 
4/10

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