Decent, but less than the sum of its parts

Rating: 6/10 (29 April 2003)

Blessed with an intriguing hook, escalating suspense and a game ensemble cast, IDENTITY is ultimately more style than substance. This is not to say it is not diverting and largely entertaining. It's just also a bit of a cop out. Coming on the heels of no less than five recent movies featuring the same modus operandi of the cagey or otherwise unreliable narrator / narrative (MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, FIGHT CLUB, THE MATRIX, SIXTH SENSE and even CUBE 2), IDENTITY is probably the least successful of the group in logically / cleverly integrating the gimmick. Coming so late in this plot device's cycle, one would have hoped for more than mostly nonsensical pseudo-psychological mumbo jumbo. Still, this is not to say that the movie isn't an enjoyable ride. It just doesn't go very far after promising a much greater journey.
SPOILERS
Like too many X-Files episodes, the movie sets up a clever challenge and hook which the climax and conclusion is never able to satisfyingly explain or resolve. A movie which owes a tremendous debt to PSYCHO, IDENTITY ultimately suffers the same anti-climactic letdown inflicted on us by Hitchcock. PSCYHO's five minute pop psychological soapbox soliloquy on cross dressing by Simon Oakland is matched by IDENTITY's similarly laughable lip service dissertation by the defense psychologist on how the entire movie we've been watching is the schizophrenic delusions of a sybillic patient. This longwinded and patronizing lecture on split personalities is almost as dated as Leslie Nielsen's "Monsters of the Id" deus ex machina from FORBIDDEN PLANET.
Much like FIGHT CLUB, another movie which relies heavily on the POV of an insane (in this case schizophrenic) protagonist, IDENTITY begins to lose steam just as it strains hardest to impress us with its twists. The problem is not that the story isn't ambitious. The problem is that the split personality twist is from out in left field and we are left bushwhacked, sidetracked and disappointed. It's a twist that we don't want to be true because it ruins the mystery that we hope will have a much better explanation.
Obviously the creators give a lot of thought to structuring the reveal and choreograph individuals' locations at the time of each murder such that any number of red herrings and solid suspects are available. At first Busey seems a great suspect. Then the motel manager. Then Ray Liotta. Then ghosts from the "Indian Burial Ground." There is much to admire in the first half hour, where we meet the ten characters efficiently and unpredictably. We see in nicely non-linear fashion how each player's actions contribute to the others' arrival at the remote motel where they will all ultimately die.
IDENTITY has plenty of jolts and some smartness. While it outsmarts itself at the end and gives in to a gimmicky finale, up to that point it is a divertingly creepy and intriguing road to nowhere.