Movie Breakdown: Identity Thief

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) puts Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy together.  Hilarity possibly ensues.

The Reality:

There are two things that I noticed about Identity Thief once it had been rolling for about 30 minutes.  The first is that it’s a well made film that has some real effort behind it.  Sure, some of the bits lack originality, but Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy are doing their best to sell every single one of them, and that should be celebrated (at least a little, anyway).  The other thing I noticed is that it’s essentially a road trip movie.  Or, if you will, an excuse to pair up Bateman’s uptight guy routine with McCarthy’s wild, over the top energy.  I certainly don’t mind that someone wanted to toss the two into a small space, but I felt like this was the obvious reason for the film existing, which then made the identity theft stuff feel tacked on.  Too bad they weren’t given a better reason to team up.

Regardless of plot devices, though, Identity Thief is a fairly funny flick.  Matinee it, friends.

The Lesson:

If you have two leads willing to go all out, even a slightly flat comedy can still be solid.