IDENTITY
Released: April 25, 2003
I wanted to like "Identity". For the first two thirds of the movie, I actually DID like it. The cast is great - John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, Jake Busey and even an almost forgotten Rebecca De Mornay appear. The story has promise - when a nasty storm hits a hotel, ten strangers are stranded within and as they begin to know each other, they discover they are being killed off one by one. The director is good - James Mangold directed 1997's "Cop Land". He also directed fare like "Kate & Leopold". "Identity" falls into the "Kate & Leopold" category - amusing but utterly unmemorable. Add on to it that it has a silly plot twist at the end that, for me, is totally improbable. It made me laugh. It ruined all that the movie had worked so well to build up. However, it looks great and the director can be thanked for employing the feature Joel Schumacher used in "Phone Booth" - a fleeting running time. "Identity" clocks in at barely 90 minutes. Any longer and the laughter at the end would have been louder. Go see it if you like the cast, but otherwise - save your cash for another day...
90 Minutes
Columbia/Sony