Awesome. One of the best films of 2003, and one of the best mystery thrillers ever.

Directed by James Mangold (Copland, Girl, Interrupted)

CAST:
John Cusack Edward
Ray Liotta Rhodes
Amanda Peet Paris
John C. McGinley George York
Alfred Molina Dr. Malick
Clea Duvall Virginia "Ginny" Iana
William Lee Scott Lou, Ginny’s husband
Rebecca DeMornay Caroline Suzanne, the actress
Jake Busey Robert Maine, the convict
John Hawkes Larry Washington, the motel owner
Bret Loehr Timothy York
Leila Kenzle Alice York
Matt Letscher Greg (Gavin from Good Morning Miami)

Identity is the second movie I’ve seen in a month that borrows from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and like Mindhunters, has one or two shocking plot twists, but is not only a good movie, it may even be better. It’s not that I necessarily dislike Mindhunters now, but I often form a more final conclusion about a film as time passes after first viewing it, sometimes after seeing it over and over. The ending of Mindhunters has been nagging at me a bit, and after seeing Identity, I think these guys did the plot right. At only one hour and twenty-seven minutes, the movie manages to tell a complete story that leaves you satisfied, and by its very nature, it has far less plot holes or leaps in logic.

As you can gather from the trailer, which you can view at http://www.apple.com/trailers/columbia/identity/, ten strangers become stranded at a desert motel during a violent thunderstorm, and one by one, they get picked off by an unknown assailant.

Whereas Mindhunters is a modern movie that surrounds itself with a NAVY training ground setting, and the high-tech motif of modern FBI criminology and behavioral profiling ala The Silence of the Lambs, Identity is a more of a throwback to the noirish desert motel thriller that strands the characters during a constant downpour of rain to punctuate the feeling of despair and hopelessness as death comes for each one of them. It not only acknowledges its Christie-esque origins by having one of the characters mention that their situation reminds her of that book, but it also makes greater emphasis on the revelation that there is some connection between the ten strangers. In Mindhunters, it’s a given, since they’re all in the same profiling class, so it’s not really a plot point. But there is another more important reason why Identity is a more sincere, and more original Christie-esque thriller.

The ending is more honest and stems from a more legitimate sense of logic from the movie’s overall premise. Whereas Mindhunters seemed content to simply tack on one more twist after another simply for the sake of yet another twist (a problem that I also had with Wild Things), when the Shocking Twist Ending occurs towards the end of Identity, it’s because it’s inherent to the film’s…well, it’s identity. And when that ending plays out, you not only say, "Holy Sh*t!" like you did at the end of Basic Instinct or The Usual Suspects or Se7en, but realize that Identity isn’t just another Whodunnit, but one of those films that, like The Usual Suspects or Memento, uses the medium to tell a story from a particular angle in order to challenge your very perceptions. Things are no longer what we thought they were, but something else entirely that are meant to tell a story on a completely different level of thinking. Think you know who the killer is? Well I guessed correctly who it was. But when the ending plays out, you realize you can still correctly guess who it was, and still be completely wrong at the same time.

See it when it comes out April 25th.

NITS:
When Paris is driving in an open-top car in the beginning of the movie, she fiddles with the luggage in the backseat, and when the suitcase cover flips open, the wind blows several articles of clothing out of the car behind her. But one of the articles is a stilleto-heeled shoe. Could the wind really cause that to blow out of the car? Isn’t it too heavy? Yeah, I know, it’s all in Macolm’s mind, yadda yadda yadda…

The Usual Suspects was great at twisting things in a believable and entertaining way. If Identity pulled off a similar feat, I'll definitely go see it... I prefer these types of films when they're a little challenging and still don't stretch credibility to the limit.

I liked the film...a lot.

Now:

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS


Please do not read any further if you haven't seen the movie.

There were some things that bugged me about what goes on at the hotel. I know that ALL of it is just Malcolm's messed-up mind, but it sort of bugs me still. What was up with the original Larry, the dead hotel manager? Did they just die on his own? If so, what did that represent for Malcolm...if anything? When the other convict escapes, why does he run away from and then back to the hotel? How could Timothy rig the car to explode? When does he have the opportunity to kill Rebecca DeMornay? How come no key is found after the car explodes (because that would give the plot away)? Is there any significance to the fact that Malcolm apparently has THREE (maybe more) violent personas, not just one?

Also, in a more pragmatic mattter, is there any judge in the world that would believe Alfred Molina's piece of •••• story? At the very least, you would argue that he is mentally imbalanced enough to be put to death. To argue that he, in some therapy session, killed his other personalities is streeeeetching it.

Good film though. Excellent performances from MOST of the cast (I wasn't too thrilled with the young couple). Also, it's interesting to note just how everything connected with Malcolm's life and mind (which I still haven't gathered fully together).

At the hearing, the Ed personality (Cusack) talks about what happened at the motel as if it occurred some time ago, but if that’s true, he shouldn’t exist, since the Ed personality was killed by the time it ended. The only personality who should still exist by the time of the hearing aside from Timothy is Paris.

Actually, I think Ed is talking like he was interrupted out of something already going on. All he knows about is what happened up to the point he blanked out and woke up at the hearing.

I agree with Luigi above where he compares this to "Se7en", "The Usual Suspects" and "Memento". It's one of those movies that you leave the theater wanting to see again just to catch anything you missed. Great movie.

Not too good psychology, though. I was pretty sure of it myself, but I did confirm it with my friend, who currently holds his masters, and is 1/2 way to his doctorate in psych. At the least, this would be a highly controversial treatment. Each personality is not truly complete, but a distortion created by the mind. As such, "killing" off the different personalities until one remains doesn't cure the condition, it merely changes the form of neurosis.

If the purpose of getting all the personalities together is to get them to fight for dominance, with hopefully a more peaceful personality winning, wouldn't you want all the personalities to know beforehand? As it is, they are caught completely unaware when they start to get killed off.

If Timmy is psychotic enough to start killing on the spur of the moment as the movie seems to suggest, how has he not killed his parents yet?

Anyone understand why they included the killer montage at the end? By this point, we know it was all in the convict's head, so was it really necessary to show how he did it?

>What was up with the original Larry, the dead hotel manager? Did they just die on his own? If so, what did that represent for Malcolm...if anything?
-MikeC

I'd group him with the corrections officer that Rhodes kills, then impersonates and the man Paris is "entertaining" in their flashbacks, in that they aren't personalities, simply set-dressing to give the personalities a sense of reality.

>When the other convict escapes, why does he run away from and then back to the hotel?
-MikeC

I think he was actually surprised at that. If memory serves, he runs from the motel, and as he's crossing a ditch/creek, he sees lights ahead. Cut to him inside the room he just broke away from, looking completely confused. The point was to show that they couldn't escape, even if they wanted to; they would just end up back at the hotel.

SPOILER!


When Timmy murdered that man of the young couple, the one who married that annoying short-haired blonde girl (she spent most of the movie screaming, which ran its course very quickly), Timmy proceeded to ram against the bathroom door in order to try to kill the said blonde girl. However, exactly how big and strong is Timmy? The force acting upon that door appeared a whole lot more powerful than what a barely 9-year-old boy would be capable of exerting.

Overall, though, I thought this was an awesome movie. This and Basic were among my top picks for the late 2002/early 2003 hot movie list. Runner-ups for later in 2003 would include The Matrix: Reloaded, X-Men 2: X-Men United, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.