| IDENTITY | |
 FIRSTHOUR:  LAST HALF-HOUR:
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2003 - USA
Director: James Mangold |
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- Reviewed by Vickie 
I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I will not rate this movie as a whole
because—and this will surprise few who see it—the 90-minute flick
is, in fact, two distinctly different films stuck together 2/3 of the
way through by a plot twist that comes as somewhat of a cinematic
sucker-punch.
As begets any creepy thriller, the movie starts out on a dark and stormy night somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where the only oasis from the pounding rain is a run-down motel with a shifty-looking desk clerk named Larry (John Hawkes). One by one, and through a series of bizarre coincidences, various strangers find themselves seeking refuge from the weather. There’s a prissy actress (Rebecca DeMornay), her driver (John Cusack), a cop (Ray Liotta) transporting a prisoner (Jake Busey), and a young woman (Amanda Peet) who might be a hooker... but we’re never really sure. Two couples also show up: one (John C. McGinley, Leila Kenzle) have had a bad accident on the roads, and the other (Clea DuVall, William Lee Scott) just got hitched in Vegas. With roads flooded and no sign of a break in the meteorological onslaught, the wayward travelers are all stranded, and before you can say, "WHY would you wander outside alone in the rain in the dark?!" the guests begin dying gruesome deaths... seemingly taking place in reverse order of the room numbers they’d been assigned. 10, 9, 8... etc. For the first hour of director James Mangold’s horror-thriller-mystery, it’s like a wildly colorful array of puzzle pieces are thrown at the audience... who are then left with the deliciously fun task of trying to figure out what’s going on and how everything fits together. Who’s doing the killing? Why? How did all these people wind up in the same place? Why can’t they leave? What’s happening?!?! There are even hints that it might be something supernatural, since a Native American burial ground surrounds the place. More importantly, what does any of it have to do with a psychiatrist (Alfred Molina) desperately trying to get a stay of execution for his serial-killing patient somewhere else altogether? Unfortunately, once things come suddenly, glaringly into focus and the secrets become clear for the audience, the film kind of runs out of steam and I was left with a resounding, "Wait, THAT’S IT?!?!" reaction. Once everyone figures out what’s happening, it’s almost a bit of a letdown and feels like a cheat on the part of the filmmakers. The wonderful promise of a spine-tingling moviegoing experience is abandoned and, frankly, I really wanted to see the end of the movie I started out watching. My love for the first 60 minutes aside, there were plenty of other things I liked about Identity. The performances were strong, and there was a lot of super-fun scenery chewing on the part of many cast members. Plus, there were more than enough watch-it-through-your-fingers moments where my heart was pounding in anticipation of what would jump out of the dank dark next. It's an ideal precursor to the summer-movie season and makes for a good time at the theater, especially if you have a vocal audience like the one I was with. Overall, the movie delivers on its promise of thrills and chills, and it does make for one hell of a ride... for a while. I only wish I’d enjoyed the end as much as the beginning. [Read Eric's contrasting review of Identity.] |
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