Identity - 2003
Directed by: James Mangold
Written by: Michael Cooney

Starring:
John Cusack - Ed
Ray Liotta - Rhodes
Amanda Peet - Paris
John Hawkes - Larry

dentity moves back and forth between two stories that, for most of the movie, seem unlikely to intersect. In one story, ten people are holed up in a motel in the Nevada desert, waiting out a tremendous storm, unable to go anywhere because the highway is flooded in both directions. In the other, a sleeping judge (Holmes Osborne) is called to a midnight hearing to appeal the execution of convicted murderer Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince). The prisoner's doctor (Alfred Molina) comes to his defense and tries to convince the judge to overturn his ruling by proving that, due to his mental condition, Rivers does not understand why he is going to be executed.

Gathered at the motel in the flooded desert are Ed (Cusack), a former cop turned limousine driver; Caroline Suzanne (Rebecca DeMornay), a spoiled, prickly actress whom Ed has been driving through the desert; Paris (Peet), a hooker who is on her way to Florida and a new home in an orange grove, where she plans to put her past behind her; George York (John C. McGinley), who tends to his seriously injured wife Alice (Leila Kenzle) while their little boy Timmy (Bret Loehr) maintains a frightened silence; Officer Rhodes (Liotta), who is transporting in shackles a prisoner named Robert Maine (Jake Busey); and Ginny (Clea DuVall) and Lou (William Lee Scott), newlyweds whose marriage is getting off to a rocky start. They're all checked in by Larry (Hawkes), the motel's creepy clerk. When they begin to die one at a time, it looks like something we've all seen before.

I think the best word to describe most of the movies released during the summer of 2003 is "formulaic." It was a summer of sequels, remakes, and comic book movies. At first glance — in fact, for the first two acts — Identity looks like a formula thriller. Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians comes to mind, and is even referenced in the movie. But director James Mangold and screenwriter Michael Cooney have some surprises up their sleeves, and they're the kind of surprises that make sitting through the familiar stuff more than worthwhile.

Who is killing the guests at the motel? Not all of the deaths look like murders — a couple appear to be accidents. But how can that be? Is it Robert Maine, the convicted psychopath being transported by Officer Rhodes? Is it the weasely Larry? The violent-tempered Lou? Why is there dried blood on the back of Officer Rhodes's shirt? Or do human beings have nothing to do with it at all? Are people being killed one by one in ugly, gruesome ways because the motel stands on ancient Indian burial grounds?

Identity does more than simply pose questions. Production designer Mark Friedberg, art director Jess Gonchor, and set decorator Cindy Carr create a dark, brooding, claustrophobic atmosphere that pulses with dread. A menacing shadow flits by, lightning flashes and thunder explodes overhead, and the simplest things — a baseball bat, a motel room key — become ominous.

Director James Mangold expertly sets us up for the movie's surprises. Instead of ending the movie with a single shocking revelation, Mangold reveals the third act's secrets in a measured way. What starts out looking like a typical whodunit turns out to be an intelligent and original horror movie that never cheats the viewer. I know that's hard to believe these days, but really, the movie doesn't cheat — although it does jerk us around a bit. Characters do not behave according to the script's needs, they behave like frightened, confused people.

It's difficult to believe that such a startlingly good script could come from the same man who gave us Jack Frost and Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman. But Michael Cooney has taken a familiar formula and turned it on its head. There are plenty of movies out there that are original and promising in the first two acts, but then degenerate into cliched, cookie-cutter resolutions, usually ending with a big chase, or a gunfight, or a combination of the two. Identity is very familiar most of the way, then surprises with a knockout third act.

This is the kind of movie you want to watch again right away once you've uncovered its secrets to see how Cooney and Mangold pulled it off, to see if it holds together. It does. But those first two acts are still very familiar — it's too bad they couldn't be as novel as the third.

The DVD gives viewers a choice between the theatrical cut and the "extended" version. I've watched both and can't tell the difference. If you can figure out what makes the extended version different, please let me know.

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