D: James Mangold
Columbia (Cathy Konrad)
US 2003
90 mins
Mystery/Thriller
W: Michael Cooney
DP: Phedon Papamichael
Ed: David Brenner
Mus: Alan Silvestri
John Cusack (Ed Dakota), Ray Liotta (Sam Rhodes),
Amanda Peet (Paris Nevada), John Hawkes (Larry Washington), Alfred Molina (Dr. Malick), Clea Duvall (Ginny Isiana), John C. McGinley (George York), Jake Busey (Robert Maine), Pruitt
Taylor Vince (Malcolm Rivers)
During a night of heavy rainfall, a group of strangers
are left stranded at an isolated roadside motel where they are picked off one-by-one by an apparent serial killer.
Identity tries far too hard to be complex and clever
with its plot twists, and despite being quite well executed visually, it leaves enough loose ends to trip itself over with. There's a handful of good performances and will keep you
guessing throughout, although the ending is far from satisfactory, completely out of identity from everything that came before. Still, it's a unique twist on a derivative variant on
Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (qv).
6/10