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BY LARRY CARROLL |
You don't want
to know anything about Identity. Trust me on this. When you go to
see this movie - and you should - your enjoyment of the film will be proportionate
with how little you know going in. So, I promise, I won't tell you anything
that will ruin the film for you. But I will tell you that Identity is
the best pure date movie in years - a fun, engrossing, claustrophobic whodunit
that will keep you and the person you love guessing, jumping, and holding
each other from the first shot of the film to the last.
The set-up for the story is so shamelessly old fashioned that it sounds
like some black & white flick you'd find under a dusty coverbox in
a Mom & Pop video store. Caught in a rainstorm of biblical proportions,
eleven strangers are forced to spend the night at a dilapidated motel
in the middle of nowhere. They barely have enough time to introduce themselves
when the bodies start piling up around them. Each victim is found with
a motel room key on them, counting down...10, 9, 8...those who are left
have to figure out who the killer is, and fast, if they hope to make
it through the night alive. It's Agatha Christie, it's Alfred Hitchcock,
it's a premise so simple yet so brilliantly tense that you can't help
but be sucked in.
Among the group trying to avoid joining the ranks of the living-impaired:
Paris (Amanda Peet, The Whole Nine Yards), a call girl who dreams
of better days; an 80s TV star named Caroline Suzanne (Rebecca De Mornay, The
Hand That Rocks the Cradle), living in denial about the downward
trajectory of her fame; a pair of unusually hostile newlyweds named Ginny
and Lou (Clea Duvall from Girl, Interrupted and William Lee Scott
from Pearl Harbor); Ed (John Cusack, High Fidelity), a
limo driver with an ambiguous past; police officer Rhodes (Ray Liotta, Narc)
and Robert Maine (Jake Busey, Tomcats), the killer he's transporting;
family man George (John C. McGinley, Any Given Sunday), whose
trip with his quiet stepson Timothy (Bret Loehr from TV's "Everwood")
and wife Alice (Leila Kenzle, White Oleander) has taken a horrific
turn; and Larry (John Hawkes, Hard Ball), the slimy desk clerk
at the motel.
Director James Mangold, the man behind such underrated gems as Heavy and Copland,
grabs you by the collar before the opening credits are done rolling,
and he doesn't let go until the movie ends. The whole set-up is an invitation
to play a game: can you figure out who the killer is? Mangold does a
fine job of dealing the proper card at the proper moment, and you'll
have a lot of fun trying to keep up with it all. This brings us to the
matter of the "big revelation".
Up until the "revelation" occurs, I can't see how anybody
could not thoroughly enjoy themselves with this movie. Once it does happen,
however, you'll be able to audibly hear the audience splitting between
those whispering "wow, that's cool!" and the others saying "aw,
that's stupid!" Judging by the response I saw at my screening, I
think most people will part on the "cool!" side - I know I
did. But I can also see an argument for the rest of the crowd's position,
and while those skeptics won't have much fun with the rest of the film,
the majority should. Try not to be skeptical, try to loosen yourself
up, and you'll enjoy the ride that Identity takes you on. But
even those who dislike the "revelation" will agree - everything
before it is just plain rockin'.
All the acting in the film, from the first victim to the last, is top
notch. Cusack gets to work some muscles we've never seen him flex before,
and his "nice guy" personality adds an extra dimension to the
leadership position thrust upon him that most actors would have a hard
time mustering up. Liotta, who's enjoying a real renaissance in his career
lately, sizzles on the screen with a ferocity that keeps making you think
he could be the killer, then keeps making you think he couldn't. McGinley
turns in a typically strong supporting performance, while carrying most
of the emotional weight of the film on his shoulders. Peet and Hawkes
build up a creepy hatred towards each other that amps the tension level
up a few notches, and DuVall and Scott make decent characters out of
a couple whose bickering could have been quite tiresome. Pruitt Taylor
Vince (Simone) and Alfred Molina (Frida) also manage to
turn small roles into something memorable.
But Mangold is the real star here, and the heavy-handed power he wields
over this motel are something to behold. He'll scare you, he'll tease
you, and he'll give you a headache from thinking too hard. But you'll
dig every bit of it.
That's all I'm saying about Identity, because that's all I want
you to know before you see it. It's a film whose best parts are unapologetically
lifted from others of the genre, but by the end it will entrench itself
firmly in your mind. And when you're leaving the theatre, you'll want
to turn right around, throw down another ten bucks, and go see it again.
It's that good.
GRADE: A- |
