Identity Thief

The cast is too talented to have let something like this happen. But here they are. The film has good intentions, but it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be as the tone of the film shifts quite frequently. And this shift in plot and narrative work their way back to the characters, forcing us to always remain at arms length and never really become attached or concerned with them. There were plot points that could have been exploited, and others that could have been omitted in order to remedy this situation.

Often throughout the film I was on the cusp of laughing at the jokes or being pulled along by the characters, but then would be immediately cut loose. It feels like the film went to production one script revision too soon.

In the end it feels like a modern retelling of De Sica's 1948 Neorealist film The Bicycle Thieves. Just with a traditional Hollywood ending and little to no exploration of the human condition.