"I met a man who wasn't there" but...

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2010)

I will skip the synopsis and general description, since this has been covered thoroughly. I am rarely caught off guard by a plot, since I'm not only a film fanatic but also a screenwriter. It takes a LOT for a film's plot to dupe me, since, odds are (and you writers out there, I'm sure), we've seen it before. "Identity" is one of those exceptions. This is why the device of cutting back to the hearing with Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince) nd his psychiatrist (Alfred Molina) every so often annoyed me.
Aside from it taking away (even if it was towards the end) from my utter surprise (though not completely), I really wanted to stay at that motel, with those people, until the ending. It was so engaging, right from the beginning, and escalated so rapidly and compellingly, I felt that each time we were whisked away to the shrink's or lawyer's offices, I was missing something. Sure, that's the genius of this plot, that I was wrong, but it still bugged me.
I hate having anything about a mystery given away. I want to be just as much in the dark, trying to figure out what the hell is happening, as are the characters. I like being surprised, caught off guard and fooled (by movies anyway). It is so hard to do it well and so seldom that a mystery is as artful as this, that any diversion is unwelcome.
While some complain that the ending is too upsetting or unsatisfying, I was properly stunned and though I thought I was fairly sure what would happen,I was wrong. THAT is a cool ending. As Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp)...or was it John Shooter (John Turturro)?...says in "The Secret Window" (Stephen King), "The most important part of the story is the ending." "Identity" lives up to that admirably.
Enough has been written about the excellent cast, but I would like to add that it was a great pleasure seeing John Cusack and Ray Liotta, two greats, both incredibly cool in different ways, play off one another, jockeying for "alpha male" position! You expect that from Liotta; not Cusack. The entire cast, however, was excellent. Amanda Peet, especially, was very sympathetic, so much so that you expect her to turn out to be nothing like she seems, in this labyrinth of fake identities and made-up life stories.
I was disappointed and surprised that Rebecca DeMornay (was "that actress" an allusion to "Gilligan's Island"? Was the whole motel? lol) was used so briefly. She was a real villain in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"! The geographical "name-game" was another nice twist, used by many directors and writers (remember the G.I.'s in "Forrest Gump", none of whom were named after their actual places of origins?).
This film, despite a few (minor) weaknesses, was excellent, edge-of-your-seat, great story-telling! I've lost count of how many times I've seen it, but, as with the film "Blade Runner" (referenced by many here), I notice something new each time. And it totally "out-Psycho's" "Psycho", which is quite a feat.