Well-Crafted and Surprising

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2003)

A motel off the main highway. A car traveling through pounding rain. Take a little Alfred Hitchcock and stir. But the result isn't "Identity."
Its settings and its set-up (to a large degree) may look and feel like "Psycho" with a little Agatha Christie mixed in. But director James Mangold and writer Michael Cooney deserve a lot of credit here. They've taken just enough elements that are familiar and derivative and then smartly turned them inside-out.
Ten strangers meet in a deserted motel and then start getting bumped off one by one. Whodunit? Whydtheydoit? And how come everyone seems awfully cagey and unsettled? (Beyond dead bodies piling up, that is.)
Though less than 90 minutes long, "Identity" is tightly wound, and the first 15 minutes introduce the characters, the setting and a tangentially related story in a masterful way.
One big flaw: Cooney and Mangold reveal the big "twist" (and it's a whopper -- at least on par with "The Sixth Sense") about 10 minutes too early, robbing what should be the most eek-inducing moments of some of their tension.
Even bigger: "Identity" throws in one too many twists in its final few minutes, bringing on a switcheroo that tries way too hard and seriously detracts from an otherwise original, memorable and very creepy thriller.