good first half, awful plot twist ending

Rating: 4/10 (6 May 2005)

NOTE: the spoiler comes toward the bottom and is clearly noted. Feel free to read the rest of this.
IDENTITY is one of those movies that just misses being great. However, just because this movie aims for the heavens doesn't mean that its graceless fall back to earth can be ignored.
On paper, this movie seems like a sure thing. John Cusak restrains his typical ranting character and does a good job as a penitent man. John C. McGinley (who is my favorite actor to see die in movies because I hate him so much) does a good job as a wussy husband/step-father. Rebecca DeMornay is good as a washed up actress (two words: type casting). Ray Liotta is pretty good, too, and even Jake Busey does a pretty good job, which is shocking. His death is pretty cool, too, but was unfortunately performed on a dummy.
Good actors need a good script, though. The material is good. This movie is based on the plot of Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS (AND THEN THERE WERE NONE), which is a good book and has been made into a good movie. However, someone decided to try a different angle for IDENTITY. Instead of using good source material and hiring and good screenwriter, they hired Michael Cooney. I'm sure you remember him better as the writer/director of JACK FROST and JACK FROST 2: REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN. No? Well, you're missing out on a homicidal snowman killing Shannon Elizabeth in her film debut. With a carrot. In her special place. Doesn't that sound like the right person to write a murder mystery with talented actors?
Obviously, it was. The writer clearly thought that adding not one but two plot twists that make the viewer not care about the characters or the linear plot was a good idea. After the plot twist, I felt as connected to these characters as I do to the bad guys in RAMBO III. This should have been a three or four star movie. The plot twist subtracts two stars automatically. Watch this movie if you want to be disappointed. Then watch CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD because you clearly want to punish yourself.
SPOILER COMING UP! BEWARE!
The movie is pretty good in the first half. There is a puzzling peripheral plot line about an insane convict having his sanity tested, but the rest of the movie is fine. Then the plot twist happens. All the characters in the murder mystery are symptoms of the convict's disassociative identity disorder (AKA multiple personalities)! What a great, edgy idea! Why should we care what happens to figments of someone's imagination? We shouldn't!
Whoa, the little kid is the killer? That's intense! No, it's not. It is stupid. It does not even take advantage of the whole unreality of the mind-scape. Instead, the kid turns out to be the mystery killer and we are led to believe that, somehow, he orchestrated all of the other murders, which is not possible. Had they played up the idea that anything can happen, then it might not have been so bad. But they played it straight. Had the kid been the killer in a movie where the characters were not imaginary, then it might have been cool. Puzzling and motiveless? Yes. Awful pot twist? Not necessarily. This script commits a sin of screen writing. It tries to outsmart the audience by introducing a "guess the killer" plot and then makes it absolutely impossible for the audience to fulfill their expectations. Wrapping it up in psychologist mumbo-jumbo doesn't excuse this, it just insults the audience's intelligence; we know when we are being messed with. Screw you, Michael Cooney. The cast and director are all pretty good; they should have known better than to be involved with this script.