Review of Identity (2003) by Elizabeth N — 09 Jan 2013

About halfway through Identity, the film makes a pretty big presumption which in turn leads it to making a pretty huge f**k up!

John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet are amongst the strangers who thanks to a flooded road find themselves stranded in a creepy and rain soaked motel, the same night a dangerous killer is being transported so Alfred Molina's psychiatrist can get him out of his execution. Slowly the inhabitants of the motel are picked off one by one with motel keys counting down from ten found with their bodies.

Identity begins much like many 90's slasher movies. It has name stars, one of which is the first to be picked off by the killer, it has the creepy location and the stalk and slash deaths. It manages to retain an air of mystery though with it's implausibility as to how the killer is going about doing things. There are times when it approaches being very clever and suitably scary too.

Then it drops a clanger. One insightful character observes that the situation is "Just like that story where ten strangers are gathered on an island and yet they're actually connected". Now, whomever made Identity must have been assuming that no one watching the film was ever going to have heard of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, as that is the story the character was referring too. Once it's been revealed where the influence upon Identity has come from then it's also obvious where the film is going to go.

This is a grand shame as it robs the film of a good deal of it's narrative pull. The idea behind Identity is still a good one but it seems a little hollow after you've worked this out.

The cast that have been assembled are all rather perfect for this sort of thing. Cusack likes to lend his hand to low budget horrors and is reliable. Ray Liotta gives us his menace setting set to medium here while Amanda Peet and Clea Duvall do well on screaming duty.

Identity does start to unravel towards the end and the twist doesn't pack enough of the punch that you feel it ought to. The film might have worked better as a straight forward thriller rather than lumping it toward the horror market.

In summary, Identity is a good film and if you've never seen one of Agatha Christie's most famous works then you'll probably get a massive kick out of it's revelations.