Comes close to being as clever as it thinks it is.

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2003)

At one point in "Identity," Clea DuVall points out the situation's similarity to Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" (though she doesn't actually mention the work by name), though no one can really call this movie a homage to the Jessica Fletcher ancestor. James Mangold's movie is the sort that works best if you don't know too much about it going in, so apart from the basic setup of a group of people finding themselves stuck in a motel in the middle of nowhere during a dark and stormy night, you won't get too much about the plot here.
"Identity" certainly has a lot going for it - the plotline is intriguing, the movie is a return to a good old-fashioned murder mystery, and the director's got a good cast to play with; if you put John Cusack as a limo driver, Ray Liotta as a cop, Amanda Peet as a lady of the night, John C. McGinley as a stepfather, Jake Busey as a convicted murderer being transported to a hearing, Alfred Molina as a psychiatrist and the ever-lovely Rebecca DeMornay as a diva-ish actress in the same movie, you're unlikely to get a load of bad acting, and you don't. Alan Silvestri's effectively disorienting score and some real jolts help the movie's 90-minute running time move along efficiently as well.
BUT...
The movie's major plot twist is a problem - I won't give it away here, but if I could suss it out before it's revealed, then I can't be the only one to be a few steps ahead of writer Michael Cooney; his tendency to wrongfoot the audience, though it works more often than not, leads him to try and garnish the tale with red herrings... and he makes the mistake of trying to go for one twist too many at the end. Again, I won't reveal it here, but Chucky said it best in "Child's Play 3" (or was it 2?) - "Aw, man, you gotta be f***ing kidding me!" The more you think about it, the less sense it (and indeed various other plot points) makes.
It's still worth seeing, and getting Amanda Peet into something decent is never a bad thing, but "Identity" could have been a real gem instead of a flawed but diverting little thriller. And I admit to be miffed that the first person to be killed was... no, I'm not giving THAT away either.