Identity Theft

Identity Theft has a fine story, great script, and some talented acting. I won't spend a lot of time on the story, just a gist: a centuries old body thief keeps changing bodies to avoid death and boredom. In the pre-title sequence we see him wounded on a civil war battlefield, he trades bodies with a doctor to avoid death, he then flees the field and thus leaves the place without a doctor. This gives us a taste of his callus disregard for others. Fortunately the body thief is not the protagonist, instead we have Matt Walker a recent lottery winner and genuinely nice guy. He has a reliable yet lecherous friend named Brian. A long story short, Matt meets Karen (the body thief) in a bar and wakes up in Karen's body and is thrown out of his home by the new Matt (the body thief). Can the new Karen get her previous male body back? See the film, it is definitely worth it. The story is unpredictable, has a Lovecraftian weirdness, and yet makes fine sense. Lots of fine touches and good commentaries in the special features. Only two things kept me from giving it a full 10 rating, neither of which had to do with the (presumed to be low) budget: when Karen and Matt are secured to chairs it looked like it would be too easy to pull ones arms wide enough to escape the chair backs. Nit picking, but it hurt the suspension of disbelief. The other detail is that I felt we should have seen (at least) Laura Weintraub's breasts. No real nudity necessary, just some bareness above the waist. Esthetically I think it would have made the flashing and stripping scenes more scenic. Other than these nitpicking details, I think James Ward has a classic in this film. I look forward to drinking games based on Laura Weintraub's great facial expressions. She is a fine actress, and made it easy to believe Matt was the new Karen. I heartily recommend this carefully crafted weird tale.