Disappointing..........

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2003)

....like a lot of the people that have already posted reviews about this picture, I had some expectations. Apparently my expectations were too high because this movie left me kind of annoyed and surely disappointed.
If you're reading the review you've probably read other reviews that stated exactly what the premise of the film is, so I'll leave that part out. I'm just going to state my thoughts.
While I wasn't dying to see this movie, I thought it looked interesting, it could be placed in any one of a few different genres that occasionally have the ability to captivate me, and the preview grabbed my attention. Also, it was Sunday night and I was bored. I was thinking maybe it had the ability to entertain me as did "Frailty", "The Ring", or "Signs". Mysterious, dark, complex, and satisfying when all was said and done. I was wrong.
ONLY READ THE REST IF YOU'VE SEEN IT!!!FOR YOUR OWN SAKE!!!
The way the ten characters show up at the motel is interesting and seemed to be a good sign. It was the total opposite of the old slasher type flicks such as "Friday the 13th", etc. Instead of just picking up at the motel and saying,'here are a bunch of people, all that matters is what happens once they're at the motel,' they took some time to show how they got to the motel and did so in an interesting fashion that gave the viewer some insight into the characters. Good start.
Once at the motel it quickly turns into a slasher flick, hence the earlier "Friday the 13th" reference. One character gets killed, then another, then another. Gee, have I seen this before? It shows some interesting death scenes (I enjoyed the baseball bat down the throat) and you are supposed to wonder who the killer is. Is it the obvious suspect in the escaped convict? Is it Larry (was that his name?) the operator of the motel? If you wasted your time trying to figure it out, there's no point. In a movie like this the obvious is used merely as a way to throw you off. You know the movie isn't about an escaped convict pulling a 'Jason' and murdering everybody. It isn't about the motel operator (not really) doing the same thing. Hopefully that didn't trick anybody. Yet, at that point I was okay with where the film was headed. While it may have been a little too slasher-esque, I figured the forthcoming surprise ending would take over and make up for it. I was wrong.
So, as you're watching the murder fest at the motel they splice in the scenes with the death row hearing. After all, that is where the movie started and the two stories must tie together somehow, right? By now there are, what, four people (?) left at the motel when the car explodes and everybody that should be dead in the corner, or dead with a bat down their throat, or dead on the bed disappears!?! Now we are confused a bit. The room keys with the numbers was kind of exciting. 10...9...8...7...6...etc. It was cool, but it goes nowhere and, as I said, we are confused or maybe just waiting to see what's going on. Climax please.
Next thing John Cusack is in the wheelchair where the mentally unstable death row guy should be. Are we confused? Not really. We know the guy had multiple personalities, that's why the hearing is taking place. Therefore most of us figure out almost immediately that John Cusack is just one of his personalities. Now the ball is rolling and we soon learn that the whole motel deal is just in the death row guys head. It isn't people killing each other, but his personalities doing so and in the end one peaceful, happy personality will be left. Yippee!
That is basically where the film loses me. I understood it fine, but at that point I didn't care because the motel crap wasn't real and who cares which personality will win? Sure, the death row guy killed people in reality which is why he's on death row. However, the entirety of the motel sequences in the movie become moot at that point. They are personalities, not people. Who cares.
The ending. Amanda Peet's character is the one left standing and everything is okay. Wrong! The little boy personality is evil and kills her, takes over Mr. I-used-to-be-going-to-death-row-now-I'm-going-to-a-mental-hospital and he kills the doctor (sort of a "Primal Fear" moment, but not nearly as good). That was better than him assuming Peet's personality, but it doesn't save the movie.
SPOILERS NOW FINISHED!!!
In the end, as I said in the beginning, I was disappointed. The slasher stuff made me lose some respect for the movie since I knew it was trying to be a psychological thriller. And the ending ultimately makes that stuff moot. Don't mistake an elaborate script or story for a suspenseful thriller with twists and turns. The film lacks an overall flow and the idea of multiple personalities, etc. is taken in the wrong direction. The idea behind it all is still good, but the potential is not realized in this movie. Another place where the people that made this film got it wrong is that you don't need constant action and thrills to make a film suspenseful. Look at "Frailty" or "Signs" or anything Hitchcock. They were very good to great movies in my book and they managed to do so much with pretty simple story lines and not a ton of action. If you thought those films were slow then you may like this movie. However, it just goes to show what happens when Hollywood gets a hold of a script like "Identity" and makes it instead of letting M. Night Shyamalan or Bill Paxton (yes, that Bill Paxton) make a mysterious movie the way it should be made.
I won't stop anybody from seeing this and hold nothing against those who enjoyed it. I just thought it could have been better. I asked a couple people when the last time they saw a bad John Cusack movie was in my effort to support my decision to see it. I wouldn't call "Identity" bad, but it wasn't good either.
Grade: 5-1/2 out of ten.