Great sequences, but predictable

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2003)

When 10 strangers come together in a series of events in a rainy night at a hotel, they soon find they're being killed one by one, and one of them might be the killer. If they are to survive this ordeal, which doesn't seem likely, they will have to find out a secret that brought them together.
Characters are interesting, and have great depth and appeal to them. John Cusack is good in everything he does. He still has that baby face, but as our main character, Ed, does the job at convincing us he is more then what we thought he was. Ray Liotta plays a cop, Rhodes, that seems to be the opposite of Ed. Where as Ed is cool and seems to have control, Rhodes is a loaded shotgun, angry and disorganized.
Identity manages to grab you rather well in the beginning. It does a good try at attempting the Twilight Zone effect, and perhaps would have made a great 1 hour episode. But in the VERY beginning, there is a scene which almost ruined the movie for me. I won't tell you what it is, but if you pay close enough attention to it, and a few other elements, you'll figure out most of the movie long before it's over. I did. I caught every little thing the movie threw out, and although the pieces didn't make complete sense, by the time it got to the 'twist', I was underwhelmed.
Identity has 2 twists. The last and final twist isn't as surprising as the first (and the first one was easy to figure out, remember? Of course you do, because you were paying attention.) Were it not for the predictability, this would have been a better flick. Perhaps you can enjoy the movie a little better if you don't analyze everything like I did.
Still, if you like suspense movies, rent it. It's dark, and has a creepy feel to it, at the very least.
6 out of 10