Identity Thief (2013)
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A man whose identity is stolen by a con artist embarks on a cross-country road trip to find her and clear his name.
The story
In Denver, Sandy Patterson is tricked into revealing his personal information to a con artist named Diana over the phone. After his credit cards are used for thousands of dollars in Florida and he is arrested for a missed court date, the police inform him that solving the case could take a year. Determined to clear his name, Sandy sets out on a cross-country journey to find Diana. He eventually locates her in Florida, but the situation quickly complicates when they are forced to team up to evade criminals and a skiptracer who is hunting Diana for a bounty.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Sandy Patterson is tricked into giving his personal information to a con artist named Diana. When his credit cards are used for thousands of dollars in Florida, Sandy is arrested. He decides to travel to Florida to find Diana and clear his name. He finds her in Winter Park, but she steals his car. They are soon pursued by criminals and a skiptracer. The pair eventually teams up, traveling by car because their identical IDs make flying impossible. They evade the skiptracer by capturing and tying him up, and they con a bank for money. During their journey, they stop in St. Louis, where they are briefly arrested before Diana escapes with Sandy. They eventually return to Denver, where Diana reconciles with Sandy's family. Sandy and his wife agree not to turn her in. A year later, Sandy visits Diana in prison and reveals her real name is Dawn Budgie. The film ends with Diana being struck by a guard and stunned by a taser.
- First release year
- 2013
- Runtime (minutes)
- 111
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Seth Gordon
- Writers
- Craig Mazin · screenplay; Jerry Eeten · story; Craig Mazin · story
- Cast and characters
- Jason Bateman · Sandy Patterson; Melissa McCarthy · Diana; Jon Favreau; Amanda Peet; Tip 'T.I.' Harris; Genesis Rodriguez; Morris Chestnut; John Cho; Robert Patrick; Eric Stonestreet
- Genres
- road comedy; crime comedy
- Themes
- Identity theft; Consequences of crime; Redemption
- Tone and mood
- Comedy; Road movie
- Premise and plot tags
- Road trip; Identity theft; Con artist
- Reception
- The film received negative reception from critics, but grossed $175.4 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. It received a Metacritic score of 35 out of 100, indicating 'generally unfavorable' reviews, while audiences gave it an average grade of 'B' on CinemaScore.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 35 · scale: 100 · review count: 41
- Production trivia
- The film was first conceived as a project with two male leads, but that changed when Jason Bateman saw Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids and pushed for her to star alongside him.; Some filming took place in Atlanta at the 191 Peachtree Tower.; The film opened at #1 at the box office with $34.6 million in its first weekend.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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