Cool Twist on a Familiar Thriller Theme

Rating: 8/10 (30 October 2012)

IDENTITY takes a concept that we've seen countless times before and puts an interesting new spin on it. It's got its problems, but sports a mostly solid cast and a cool enough twist to make it stand out as a fun thriller. It starts as your usual "Ten Little Indians" style thriller, with a group of seemingly random people brought together in an isolated location before they begin dying off one by one under mysterious circumstances, but IDENTITY has a unique twist (that I will try to avoid ruining here in case you haven't seen the movie). The events are set in a desolate Nevada motel in the middle of the desert where a rainstorm has stranded 10 strangers for the night: Ed (Cusack) is a limousine driver transporting a washed up actress with an attitude, Paris (Peet) is a prostitute on her way to Florida in an effort to start a new life, Rhodes (Liotta) is a police officer moving a serial murderer between prisons, Ginny (Duvall) and Lou (Scott) are miserable newlyweds, and the York family is searching for help when the mother is run down by Ed's limo in a horrific accident. The storm has flooded all roads out of the area and soon visitors are killed in bizarre ways and paranoia settles in when they realize the killer could be any one of them. Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated story, a man convicted of multiple homicides is given one last opportunity to plead his case with a judge in hopes of staving off a death sentence.
It's tough to mention any parts of the film that either worked or failed without wandering into spoiler territory so I'll try to keep it vague story-wise. For the most part, it's a cool movie. I love movies set in a single isolated location (in this case the motel) because the location becomes it's own character. Here is a creepy, worn-out motel with it's buzzing neon sign in the middle of an empty highway, run by a scrawny, strung-out out man who has his own secrets. The rain is a constant presence, adding to the horror movie vibe. Without the ability to jump between locations, a movie like this is forced to turn to its characters for the story, so the movie really rides of the cast and their performances to carry its weight. Director James Mangold and cinematographer Phedon Papamicheal do an awesome job of giving the movie it's foreboding atmosphere and the cast make an otherwise "been there, done that" story feel fresh. John Cusack is an awesome character actor and you can pretty much count on him to keep it interesting, and Ray Liotta has pretty much made a career out of playing cops/criminals so his turn here as the short-tempered Rhodes isn't a stretch for him. There are a few other good performances out of the supporting crew (mostly Amanda Peet and John Hawkes, as the shifty motel owner), but the rest border on annoying and over-the-top. Then again, John C. McGinley is almost always over-the-top, so I guess he can be forgiven here.
The main draw of IDENTITY is, of course, the big reveal at the end of the second act that ties everything together and explains the logic behind it all. In theory, it was a cool twist and it adds a lot to the movie. It's something we hadn't seen done before and I can appreciate any movie that gets creative with old ideas. The problem was in the execution. I can forgive any other aggravation or annoyances with the movie, but the final reveal is just too laughable. So, in a way, the movie is really cool up until the final five minutes. The end just spoils it. Anyone who has seen it would probably agree. I can almost see why it was written that way, and it sort of makes sense. But that doesn't make it any less amusing and, since this isn't meant to be a comedy, sort of ruins the vibe. IDENTITY is a cool movie despite its flaws. I hate to say it's forgettable but it's just one of those movies that sank into the background soon after its release. I'd forgotten about it until I saw it sitting on my shelf collecting dust and gave it another viewing to see if it held up. And it does, pretty well. It won't wow anyone and it might make you chuckle at the end, but IDENTITY is pretty good overall.