|
You
can’t complain that Identity Thief takes
a while to get into it. The film opens with Sandy Patterson (Jason
Bateman)
taking a phone call, which he believes to be from a security company
and hands
over his details. In fact, the person on
the other end of the line is a Florida based identity thief (Melissa
McCarthy)
who is an old hand at attaining other peoples details and posing as
that person
to do whatever she wants and buy whatever she wants. When Sandy catches
onto
what is going on, he flies from Denver down to Miami to take her as his
hostage
and bring her back to Denver with him so that she can help clear his
name. It
is no surprise that a woman like this is hard to persuade in an orderly
fashion.
What
ever happened to originality in comedy? These days it seems to be the
same sort
of humour in every comedy film, with the same situations and the same
actors
making the rounds. They are ultimately the same films, just with
different
scenarios….sometimes. You couldn’t say that Identity
Thief is completely original. It is very much like 2010’s Due Date and the whole stolen identity
issue isn’t one which is unexplored in film. It just feels like you
have seen
the same comedy film you have been seeing for the last five years.
In
saying that, this brand of comedy isn’t for everyone. If you appreciate
seeing people
being constantly embarrassed (which many people do), somebody
consistently
annoying someone else (which many people also do) and the odd sexual
joke (many
people love) all in the same movie, then you may find the movie
somewhat funny.
However, if you don’t like even one of these types of humour, chances
are you
are just going to find Identity Thief annoying
and really quite dull.
The
script doesn’t provide any amazing moments to the film. Some of the
jokes just
seem so out of place and left field. The cinematography is quite a
disgrace
actually. Two of the panning shots in particular of the thief’s house
and of
the winding highway are move across so quickly that they make your eyes
defocus.
You wouldn’t want to have motion sickness if you watch this film.
On
top of that, the characters are not very likable. Jason Bateman’s Sandy
starts
off well enough as the family guy just trying to do the right thing,
but you
end up just getting irritated with him as he clearly does himself no
favours.
The identity thief (which we refer to Melissa McCarthy’s character, as
she has
an assortment of names throughout the film) is again just irritating.
The filmmakers
are obviously trying to make the character funny and trying to bring
out how
she is full of life and has had a rough time, but you still have no
empathy for
her. The two characters don’t have any chemistry and it is unclear at
one point
they actually start feeling remorse for each other.
On
the other hand, although McCarthy’s character doesn’t bring about any
sympathy,
she does have one brilliant scene in the film. The scene in the
restaurant when
she and Sandy are having dinner is perhaps the best scene in the film
for
McCarthy’s acting. It is very much like her heartfelt moment from Bridesmaids, but these are the scenes
that show there is a lot more to McCarthy than her comedy style.
This
is one of the more annoying films of the year. However, as said before,
if you
do like comedies with people doing many things wrong, like the
characters
constantly annoying each other and the odd gross joke, you may find
this half
bearable.
|
