Maybe I should quit watching trailers...

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2003)

If I hadn't seen the trailer for "Identity" I probably would have had more of an open mind for the various screenwriting hijinks that crop up in it. Someone said this movie is like the "Twilight Zone" TV series, which seems apt. I always used to enjoy "Twilight Zone," but the key to that was KNOWING that's what I was watching. The trailer for "Identity" suggested it would be a quirky little modern variation on those kill-'m-one-by-one classics like "The List of Adrian Messenger" with the killer possibly involved with "identity theft," certainly a hot-button issue nowadays. And for a while "Identity" is enjoyable on just such a level.
Various characters are driving in the remote Nevada desert when a thunderstorm and ensuing mishaps force them together into the umpteenth Norman-Batesian movie motel. (I think Mr. Hitchcock did an entire industry rather a disservice. I've spent many nights in motels and have never been murdered nor do I know anyone who has been, and the proprietors have always seemed pretty nice, especially this one middle-aged Indian lady with gorgeous braided hair.) The phone lines seem to be down and it goes without saying that no one has a functioning cell phone, so they're stuck there together. Events play out in a refreshingly non-linear fashion somewhat reminiscent of David Lynch. Every character seems just a little off-center with something to hide. Small quick moments pique our interest: John Cusack as a limousine driver furtively pulls out a gun; Amanda Peet as a prostitute opens her bag revealing wads of cash; Ray Liotta as a corrections officer puts on a shirt with a suspicious hole in the back, etc. It was nice not knowing an hour in advance where everything was going. In short I was "buying into" the proceedings, enjoying the ride. But then we get the Rod Serling stuff (a guy flees the motel and winds up back there, etc.) and talk of Indian burial grounds, making me groaningly wonder if we were steaming into "Blair Witch" waters. Then we get the bombshell....

SPOILERS ***** SPOILERS ***** SPOILERS *******

It turns out none of this is really happening. It all takes place inside the mind of a convicted murderer. This was so frustrating as to tempt me to walk out on a movie for the first time in years. Never mind the dubious psychological underpinnings about "multiple personalities" and all that. Dramatically the movie simply cuts it's own throat. It negates whatever interest we had invested in the previous or the subsequent proceedings. Everything that happens afterward seems ridiculous--the shoot-out between Cusack and Liotta, the escape of Peet, the orange grove, etc. It's all just a stunt. Lickety-split we're supposed to give a crap about the big bald-headed lug and his state of mind as the crux of the movie. At least
"The Cell" gave us a foundation for the fandango into the mind of a psycho killer. "Identity" just springs it on us out of the blue. How many damn "Sixth Sense" knock-offs do we need? After "The Life of David Gale" and "Basic" and others and now this, frankly I'm tired of having my cinematic emotional investments toyed with so flippantly. I think we need a new rating: T for Twist, or SPT for Stupid Pointless Twist. Director James Mangold has a reputation for being grounded in reality and it was mostly due to that quality that I enjoyed his previous "Cop Land." I think he should go back to writing his own scripts.

Making it even more frustrating is seeing such good acting all around get wasted. Everybody shines here. Cusack is genuinely creepy yet sympathetic, confirming the promise I saw in "Grosse Pointe Blank." Liotta (also in "Cop Land") has been down this road before but always makes it seem fresh. (Please, if you see "Narc" on video, rent it; Liotta's awesome in it.) Peet gives what should be a star-making performance. Hell, she made me enjoy "Saving Silverman" against all my expectations. There's even an unrecognizable Rebecca de Mornay in a gloriously trashy cameo as a John Waters-type leading lady. Yet they all have to play second fiddle to the bald guy with three names who gets thrust upon us as the focus of our concerns. Hey, call me a Dennis Miller acolyte but you know what, if a guy kills a bunch of people, I don't really care what's inside his head, I don't care which "self" did it. Kill the body, that pretty much covers it.
"Identity" begins and ends with that goofy little doggerel about meeting a man who wasn't there, and wishing he'd go away. Not since "Jeepers Creepers" has there been such a lame pop-culture reference. Give me any time the jump-rope ditty from "Nightmare on Elm Street": "One two, Freddie's coming for you; three four, better close the door..."