Story Rules

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2015)

Sometimes I get so tired of those "stream of consciousness" films. In a better mood, I would be good enough to sit and listen calmly, as a professional and well-paid psychiatrist, absorbing all the emotional downpour and self-inflicting scars. Not all the time, though. So I really appreciate someone coming up with a good and well thought out film plot like this one. It is a pure story that carries all the weight. Even all the well-known and high-calibered actors are embarrassingly placed secondary or lower in certain cases. After the film, people would not be talking among themselves about Cusack, Liotta, Peet, Hawkes, or Vince, but the story and how it captures them. They would think and think about how they are completely deceived and tricked, and almost forget about other angles of the film. Serial murders in an isolated motel out there? No atmosphere is more typical and predictable. Then, it is not at all typical and predictable when the main actor, the story itself that is, unfolds. I saw this film a few years back and got the point, but not the delicateness of its presentation. Now, after some years and some film maturity, I notice. A film student would do himself or herself a big favor to watch this film several times to get the story and the way it is told. Some films are supposed to take us somewhere unfamiliar and yet believable. We the human beings are sometimes in need of an emotional makeover or an escapade, at least for an hour or a little longer. Too few of films today play that important role. Filmmakers use the filmmaking a little too much as a therapy for themselves and not always for the viewers. "Identity" is not even close to become a horror classic or a cult film, but it does what film lovers do: tell a good story without blinking.