“It’s not a women’s name, it’s unisex.” ~ Sandy Patterson

Scary how easy it is to steal someone’s identity. Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is a pro at stealing identities. This time she steals the identity of Sandy Bigalow Patterson, played by Jason Bateman. Want to know how easy it was to steal his identity? Diana calls Sandy (in her best customer-service voice) and informs him that his identity had been stolen and by supplying her with his birthdate and social security number, she could sign him up for free credit monitoring. Done! Identity stolen!

Life is already not going well for Patterson. He works for a bunch of greedy partners, which mean no employee bonuses for another year. One day while half-heartedly preparing the bonus checks for the company partners, out-of-the-blue, he receives a call from a salon in Florida confirming his appointment time. What? He lives in Denver. Unfortunately, not thinking anything of it, he joins forces with his co-workers, quits his job and takes a new job at their start-up company. When the identity thief gets him arrested and threatens his newest job, he literally pulls his pennies together and heads to Winter Park, Florida to bring the thief to justice. Unfortunately for him, roping in Diana proves more of a challenge than he anticipated. Rode trip time!

My favorite scene is when Diana and Sandy meet for the first time. Sandy is on the highway following Diana, in her "rented in his name" Fiat. Not realizing that he is actually the real Sandy Patterson, she slams on the brakes of her causing him to rear-end her car. Thinking that it’s an easy, fake accident scam, she is surprised when it turns out to be the real Sandy. Striking him with her signature, hand-to-throat karate chop, she gets away, or so she thinks.

Great movie moments: –

Bateman and McCarthy have excellent chemistry, which results in great comedic moments. In addition, the audience gets glimpses into a bit of character backstory so that we come to understand and develop an attachment to the characters. There are a number of actors who give great performances. Morris Chestnut (Boyz in the Hood), plays Detective Reilly. John Cho (Star Trek), Jon Favreau (Ironman) and Amanda Peet (2012) round out the cast.

A few short-comings –

If you’re easily offended by certain language, Melissa does use her favorite vulgarity quite a bit during the movie. For a minute I thought it was going to be vulgar-free, but that wouldn’t be Melissa McCarthy would it?

Overall I give Identity Thief three out of five stars. It would have been more, but the language was a bit over the top.

Director: Seth Gordon
Release date: February 2013
Rating: R for sexual content and DEFINITELY language with a little bit of violence thrown in.
Runtime: 111 min | 121 min (unrated)

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