Financially strained Denver accountant Sandy (Bateman) has just taken a new job with a colleague (Cho) to better support his pregnant wife (Peet) and their two adorable daughters (Mary-Charles and Maggie Elizabeth Jones). Then he discovers that his identity has been stolen by someone in Florida, and for some inexplicable reason he has to go there and bring her to Colorado himself. She turns out to be Diana (McCarthy), a lifelong con artist who is being chased by a bounty hunter (Patrick) and two henchmen (Rodriguez and Harris).

Mazin's script flails around so much during the overlong running time that it neglects what could have been a decent story. While it focusses on the interaction between Sandy and Diana, the film has some genuine spark, even if it can't help but dip into corny sentimentality. And the way it hyperactively indulges in so many distracting genre set-pieces is tired and derivative. All of the action scenes are both inexplicable and implausible; the thugs chasing Diana are completely irrelevant.

Gordon directs with an efficient sense of pace but very little style. The film has that bland Hollywood sheen that makes it look like anyone could have made it, and the way every action is subjected to a little moralising sermon is seriously annoying. Even so, Bateman and McCarthy manage to get beneath the surface of their characters, papering over the ludicrously unbelievable plot points with sheer force of personality.

In the end, the narrative turns out to be eerily similar to Planes, Trains & Automobiles, with McCarthy in the John Candy role as the "hilariously" overweight chucklehead who isn't coldhearted after all, and actually has personal issues that swell up to consume the final scenes. It's a cheap ploy to have her looking so deliberately goofy all the way through the film only to turn up smart and beautiful in the final act. But McCarthy is such a solid performer that she holds on to her dignity in the process.

themes, language, violence, innuendo

11.Mar.13