Identity Theft

• Directed By: James A. Ward
• Written By: James A. Ward
• Country: USA
• Released: 2009
• Running Time: 66 minutes
• Links: Official Site
• Buy It: Three Degrees Off Centre
• Comedy, Fantasy, Reviews, Thriller

There have been a fair few body-swap films made over the years in which two characters exchange personality and find themselves in each others bodies. In the case of Identity Theft, the victim is Matt Walker (James Ward), who has just won a $50 million state lottery. Everyone wants a piece of Matt and he’s enjoying the attention, especially when he bumps into the stunningly attractive Karen Bristol (Laura Weintraub).

Matt invites Karen home with him and, unsurprisingly, she accepts. However, there is more to Karen than meets the eye and, when Matt wakes the following morning, he is shocked to discover that he is now wearing Karen’s body. To make matters worse Karen, now wearing Matt’s body, wants him out of the house and quickly.

Karen, or the individual who has just moved into Matt’s body, is a Body Thief and has been pulling this stunt for centuries, moving from one body to the next in order to achieve a form of immortality. This Body Thief has an attitude to his victims that is both callous and casual as Matt soon discovers. Karen is heavily in debt, wanted by the police and has no home to call her own.

Initially, Matt turns to his best friend, Brian (Michael Cole) for help and, later, his embittered ex-girlfriend, Lisa (Rachel Hardy) with an inevitable lack of success. This leaves Matt on his own and trying to find some way to survive as Karen. And it’s here that the film really comes to life.

Matt is an exceptionally well-drawn character. He’s an unexceptional everyman who is both believable and likeable and it’s very easy to find yourself wanting to know how events will develop for him. The film manages to retain this sense of Matt’s essential ordinariness even after the body swap has happened, and it’s this that holds your attention as the events unfold.

Matt is a well written character, but Laura Weintraub does a great job of bringing him to life in a manner that is consistently engaging. As Matt tries to make his way in the new life that has been suddenly inflicted on him, you really do get a strong and empathetic sense of both the character and her struggles to survive.

All of this makes for a film that is, by turns, both dark and funny. Identity Theft is an excellent addition to the body-swap sub-genre of films and one that manages to avoid the clichés that too many films of this type fall back on. The result is engaging, entertaining and has a superb ending.