Identity

Rating: 4/10 (5 December 2006)

From director James Mangold (Cop Land; Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line, Knight and Day), I remember seeing this film once before, but I probably didn't fully grip to grips with what was going on, and was unsure my opinion rating was accurate, so I watched it again. Basically psychiatrist Dr. Malick (Spider-Man 2's Alfred Molina) has discovered a journal belonging to his patient Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince) who awaits execution for the murder of several victims in a motel, and through flashback we see the horrific events take place. The ten strangers who end up at the motel in the middle of the night during a stormy night are limo driver and former cop Ed Dakota (John Cusack), cop Officer Rhodes (Ray Liotta) who is transporting serial killer Robert Maine (Jake Busey), attractive prostitute Paris (2012's Amanda Peet), newlyweds Ginny (Clea DuVall) and Lou (William Lee Scott); family in crisis with father/husband George York (John C. McGinley), mother/wife Alice (Leila Kenzle) and son Timmy (Bret Loehr) and 80's movie star Caroline Suzanne (Rebecca De Mornay). All have ended up at the motel, and soon enough they realise they are all in danger as they are being killed one by one by an unknown psycho, and after he killed Maine they confirm it is not an obvious person. They do at one point suspect the motel's owner Larry (John Hawkes), because he has all the keys to the doors and all the knowledge of each room, but he is killed as well ruling him out too. We found out towards the end however that all the characters we have been watching are part of Rivers, he suffers from extreme dissociative identity disorder, meaning that he is playing out what happened in reality as all the people he killed. In the end, we do see a conclusion to the in his mind story, the authorities conclude that Rivers should be placed in a mental institution, and we find out that the personality that was doing all the murders was Timmy, and he (Rivers) did manage to kill all the victims, including the final victim who supposedly got away. The cast of well known stars all do reasonably well, the killing spree format does okay, and the conclusions of how it all happened are near enough alright twists, all in all though it isn't exactly something I need to see again, but it's not a terrible murder mystery thriller. Okay!