Tough to ID this one!

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2004)

`Identity' valiantly tries to replicate an identity of various Alfred Hitchcock's suspenseful classics. However, the results for the most part is an identity crisis. Ok! Let me get to `Identity's' identity: several unrelated group of suspicious characters hibernate to a highway motel on a rainy evening (`Psycho' anyone?) and before you know it the body count commences. I am sure you can identify with some films that present the same violentiosco plot. The actors in `Identity' are renowned and easy to identify: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina, and Rebecca De Mornay. However, this acting ensemble was mostly middling here. `Identity' was suspenseful in several homage Hitchcockian scenes. However, the problem was that Director James Mangold became a bit psychotic with the multitudinous repetition of them. Mangold turned out to be `The Man Who Knew Too Little' about direction in this project. He was `Notorious'! `Identity' identifies several suspenseful elements of effective storytelling, but for the most part this one was for `The Birds'. *** Average