Identity Thief

A man's identity is stolen in this broad, implausible comedy. Melissa McCarthy does a fine job making a repugnant career criminal sympathetic; even as she throat-punches people, picks up random cowboy for rough motel sex, and gets hit by a car on the highway. Filled with plot-holes which are conveniently wrapped up with a tossed-off line of dialogue (hey, at least they were wrapped up), the film has a loose, thrown-together, ad-libbed feel throughout, thankfully. These small tidbits of comedy seemingly invented by the cast bails out an otherwise drab, formulaic, mainstream blockbuster film. I laughed several times, but I shouldn't have.

Oh yeah, just in case you think that there might be a downbeat ending; everyone learns a valuable lesson and comes to understand one another in the end. Yeah, like that's a thing that could happen. Meh.