Release Date: April 25, 2003
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina
Directed by: James Mangold
Written by: Michael Cooney
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R (strong violence, language)
Identity has a unique way of telling a simple story -- you know, your run-of-the-mill tale about a motel and a whole bunch of dead people. Directed by James Mangold (Cop Land), the film interweaves the stories of several different characters in an interesting way that will have viewers guessing till the bitter end. Yes, it’s a thinking man’s movie, but regardless of whether you like movies that make you think, this one should not be passed up.
The film is headlined by two very watchable and enjoyable lead performances from John Cusack and Ray Liotta, who are among ten strangers who all end up at the same motel one fateful stormy night. They each have a secret, which doesn’t make things any friendlier when these guests start to die untimely deaths at the hands of an unknown killer. One by one they fall, leaving the rest to figure out who will be the last one standing.
Anything beyond that would ruin the fun for the potential moviegoer. Part of that fun -- besides the typical confusion of the story’s mayhem -- is trying not to get lost in the smart script by Michael Cooney. Cooney, whose most recent film was the B-movie hack job Jack Frost, has developed a much more carefully constructed plot in Identity. Although his timing and pacing is occasionally a little unsettling, it’s forgivable when considering the number of twists and turns that he and director Mangold are faced with.
Mangold demands a lot from his audience, and there are times when you get the feeling he’s even asking the viewer to evaluate the minds of his characters to help in figuring out which one is behind it all. The atmosphere is wonderful, too; anyone who has seen Psycho will know that there is something about a run-down motel in the middle of nowhere on a stormy night that makes it one of those perfect sets to put a film into high gear. Also helping with the atmospherics are Alan Silvestri and Phendon Papamichael, who provide the score and cinematography, respectively.
The director doesn’t simply set the camera in place and shoot, either. Drawing on the skills he probably honed in helming the heavy, character-driven drama Cop Land, Mangold doesn’t shy away from pulling together a cast of diverse characters. This, combined with some newer, more stylized editing techniques (which have become quite popular these days), he’s able to introduce the players and then set them up later. It’s a fun, refreshing method of filmmaking that helps keep Identity from being just another genre exercise.
Some viewers may not have the patience for a film like this, which, when it comes to Identity is unfortunate. Yes, the ending is abrupt, and it may even draw an uncomfortable laugh or two from the more disgruntled audience members. But unlike Cooney’s previous film, Identity is no laughing matter. And even if he has stolen some of the idea from Hitchcock, if you’re out to make a suspense thriller, who better to crib from then the master himself.
-- Michael J. Eiff (eiff@email.arizona.edu)