It's only a dream...so why should we care anymore?

Rating: 3/10 (7 June 2004)

SPOILERS within....
I found the first two thirds of Identity to be exceptionally captivating. Very weird. Very interesting. I was immediately pulled into the story and joined the group of characters in trying to unravel the riddles of the events that are occurring. What a challenge to try to resolve the mystery of the countdown keys! How to explain the disappearing bodies! Or trying to come up with a plausible explanation how Jake Busey escapes but ends up back at the same Motel. Then comes the mystery of "May 10th". WOW! What fun to explore different theories. Identity was turning into some kind of Twilight Zone thriller.
Then two thirds of the way into this wonderful who-dunit came what has been called here, "the twist". Immediately after the "May 10th" mystery is set-up, it is revealed that all the events and characters, the movie itself, is taking place in the mind of a criminal. These characters are his multiple personalities playing out within his mind. The movie is someone's dream. The big "twist" is to tell we the audience that none of these people exist. "Guess what folks," the movie says. "None of what you have watched ever took place!"
My two biggest issues with Identity:
1. The copout of 'it's only a dream' to explain all the mysteries. I found this to be quite a letdown to what could have been an outstanding mystery. However I could have overlooked this flaw had it not been for the following.
2. The narrative returns to the dream world of the Motel after it is revealed that this is a completely fictional environment. What a waste of time. For the next seven and a half painful minutes we are asked to care about the outcome of characters that we have been told don't exist. This is a huge mistake for this film. At this point, I lost all interest in Identity. All of the characters pains, frustrations, feelings, desires, motivations....EVERYTHING became moot. Additional murders occur, but who cares: it's only a dream. These are no longer people being killed. We learn that Ray Liotta's character is not whom he appears to be. But again, who cares. He could have just as well been a space alien at this point. It's only a dream! There is no reason to care about the outcome of these imaginary people at the motel. In the end, when the final 'twist' of which character was actually responsible is revealed, Paris is killed. Her death is meaningless because she never really existed to begin with.
In short, I lost all sense of association with these non-characters. Identity would have been much better had it wrapped up all the action within Malcolm Rivers' mind before revealing that Malcolm's mind was the location of all the action. There can be no suspense in a man's dream where anything can happen.