A Gimmick Movie (contains spoiler)

Rating: 5/10 (26 April 2003)

"Identity" is a gimmick movie disguised as a whodunit. It isn't even a scary movie. It's an intellectual puzzle at best and really not that engaging. I knew what was going on almost immediately. The first time I stopped to think, "Why are they showing us this scene that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the movie?," I realized there was only one thing that could explain what was happening: none of it was real, it was all being made up in someone's mind. I sat there for half the movie waiting for that to be revealed, and then when it was revealed, the movie kept going to a conclusion that was silly. Despite the strong cast, never once during the movie did I care about what was going to happen. Watch a movie like the "Sixth Sense" instead and feel the tension, feel how you don't want to look at what's going to happen next. Now that's tension. Nothing like that happens here. People get killed and it's about as shocking as watching a character in a video game get killed. And when the secret of what's really going on is revealed, I think many people will feel cheated.