Identity (2003)
What starts out as a sleek, dark,
post-modern "Gilligan's Island" meets "Psycho" ends
up being a silly, contrived and obvious mess. This
film falls hopelessly apart about midway through and
when the plot goes exactly where it seems to be going,
you just want to throw your hands up in despair.
Ten strangers meet up at a ramshackle
motel when a deluge of rain seems to wash out every
road in the neighborhood. Some of the characters are
really silly contrivances, like the bitchy actress
John Cusack chauffeurs in a limo. Others, like the
newlyweds played Clea Duvall and some guy I've never
seen before, are so boring and typical we wonder why
they are there. Luckily, as the trailer has promised,
people soon start dying.
The film's plot and "trick" becomes
obvious about halfway through the movie as a subplot
taking place away from the film's main action becomes
increasingly more important. I understand why scripter
Michael Cooney has to begin unfolding this story-within-a-story
as he does, to introduce it later in the film would
be even more silly. But introducing it as he does
here deflates any tension and intrigue the film has
built up. It becomes immediately obvious what is really
going on in the film. Of course, it didn't hurt that
I had seen the little-known independent film by Michael
Hoffman, "Scary
Tales: The Return of Mr. Longfellow," a few days
earlier, which also utilizes a similar plot in one
of its segments. Hoffman's film is going to suffer
because people are going to assume he ripped off his
story from "Identity" and that's a shame. Hoffman's
is the better of the two.
Director James Mangold has a really
good sense of suspense and intrigue. The first half
of the film, before the script falls apart, is quite
well-done. I was really absorbed and interested in
the film and trying desperately to figure out what
is going on for at least 40 minutes here. It's a shame
that the last half of the story is just so mangled
though. It really suffers. Although, truth be told,
Mangold's handling of the film's seeming resolution
did lull me into a false sense of ending until the
obvious killer came back onto the scene reminding
me that I had the film figured out half-way through.
The acting in the film varies from
the horrible (an unrecognizable Rebecca De Mornay
is just awful as is Duvall) to the competent (Cusack,
Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet). Cusack turns in a winning
performance even though the psychosis of his "character"
becomes more and more obvious as the plot unfolds.
Liotta looks hunky again after a turn as a aging,
disheveled rat in the winning "Narc."
And Peet continues into a string of performances that
surprise us with their audacity, one that began with
"Igby Goes Down."
One unknown who does standout is John Hawkes as the
motel's night manager Larry. Hawkes gives a performance
midway through the film on which the plot hinges and
does so with scene stealing aplomb. This is a character
actor of great note. (It is only after seeing the
film, admiring his work, and reading about him that
I found out he was from Austin).
"Identity" is a good film that just
gets more and more stupid as it unravels. Here, the
whole is much less than the sum of its "multiple"
parts.
Note:
Also with Alfred Molina, John C.
McGinley, Jake Busey and Pruitt Taylor Vince.
Several endings were filmed for
the piece and will surely end up on the DVD.
The film was known as "I.D." during
production.
Hawkes has a band called Gangster
Folk.
Viewed in Austin in May 2003 with
Ashton.
