Tricks itself

Rating: 4/10 (30 January 2013)

There have been a number of films that paint their characters into corners from which there seems to be no escape, only to produce a wild card to get them out, often in the form of an identity or personality shift such as in "Lost Highway", "Mulholland Drive" and "Vanilla Sky".
However, I think the identity shift / multiple personality wand can only be waved so many times before it becomes not just predictable but also annoying. Movies that resolve convoluted plots in this way run the risk of cheating the audience. "Identity" might just be the film that uses this get-out-of-jail card one time too many.
The movie had me going for a while. As the credits roll, a psychiatrist makes audio notes about the case of a serial killer, Malcolm Rivers, who is to be executed the following day. Dr. Mallick, played by Alfred Molina, is attempting to have Rivers reassessed as mentally incompetent.
The scene then shifts to a Nevada motel during a violent storm. Thanks mainly to Alfred Hitchcock, most moviegoers know that booking into an isolated motel on a rainy night is one of the most dangerous things a human can do – on a par with exploring active volcanoes or surfing 100-foot waves in the mid-Atlantic.
A number of seemingly unconnected individuals make their way to the motel seeking shelter. Among them are characters played by John Cusack, Rebecca De Mornay, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet.
After a number of murders, the survivors realise that a serial killer is picking them off one by one. At this point, the story is pretty much an updated version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Then comes the zinger! It is established that everyone in the motel, dead or alive, shares the same birthday. How can this be? They all arrived at the motel by accident without any pre-planning. The reason is simple – they are all the same person! All the characters are manifestations of Malcolm Rivers' schizophrenic psyche.
Did I slap my forehead and say how clever is this? No, I thought what a total rip-off. The story moves at a fast clip until the end. This is just as well, because the holes in the film's logic are big enough to drive a motel housekeeping trolley through.
We also know from watching movies that serial killers are never guarded closely enough. There is virtually no straight jacket, prison cell, nor any medication that will keep them restrained for a whole movie. They always escape and the body count goes through the roof. Although "Identity" puts a twist on this unwritten law, we know by this time that the filmmakers have no shame and will use just about any trick to wrap the whole thing up.
The movie does provide a couple of good shocks. Sadly, although it goes for a slam-dunk at the end, "Identity" simply bounces out of the court instead.