Identity review

After Psycho, the mere setting of an isolated motel is enough to instill a sense of anticipation and fear. When you add nightfall, rain of biblical proportions, flickering neon, creaking signs and a creepy manager, it's pretty clear we're not only dealing with a nerve-jangling thriller, but one that pays more than a passing nod to its chilling heritage. What Identity lacks, though, is any tangible sense of involvement and, more importantly, a satisfying conclusion.

Things begin with promise when a series of interconnected incidents bring ten stranded travelers to the motel managed by the sleazy Larry (John Hawkes). There's an assertive chauffeur, Ed (John Cusack), the fading actress he works for (Rebecca De Mornay), a tough call girl, Paris (Amanda Peet), a volatile policeman Rhodes (Ray Liotta), the maniacal prisoner he's escorting (Jake Busey), a neurotic father (John C. McGinley), his unexpressive son and injured wife (Leila Kenzle), and a newly-wed young couple (Clea DuVall and William Lee Scott). What soon becomes clear is that all have their own issues, and none are quite who they appear to be.

Shortly after arriving, the visitors start meeting gruesome ends, beginning with the discovery of a head in a dryer. All the usual scary tactics are used. There's the close-up of a rattling door lock with the murderer one side and a screaming woman the other. Also, to comfort the nervous guests, someone utters the obligatory, "It's going to be okay," which in such circumstances always means the exact opposite. And all the while, the rain keeps falling.

Peppered throughout are clues as to what's really going on, beginning with a patient reciting a nursery rhyme to a psychiatrist (Alfred Molina), later we see one of the guests with a copy of Jean Paul Sartre's 'Being And Nothingness.' Writer Michael Cooney and director James Mangold may think they have been clever in coming up with a mystery that is hard to unravel, but in truth the only reason it's impossible to figure out is because it doesn't make sense.

Until this discovery, it's possible to enjoy Identity on an instinctive level. As the body count increases so does the tension amongst the remaining guests along with the level of suspicion and suspense. Even if the characters are all rather overwrought, the good cast headed by the always-engaging Cusack do a decent job in providing them with conviction, especially as they know the twist.