261 Days of Horror, Day 26: Identity
Feb. 5th, 2007 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiIdentity. 2003. Directed by James Mangold. Written by Michael Cooney. Distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Most slasher films have an element of And Then There Were None in them. We're exposed to a group of victims, and we watch them get picked off one-by-one. Few follow the ATTWN formula as closely as Identity, however. What's impressive about this fun little movie is how it takes a tried-and-true formula and twists it into a completely different sort of story.
A quick note: because the movie plays (deliberately) fast and loose with time, my summary might place the occasional scene out of order.
In Identity, we see what are essentially two simultaneous stories. A judge is called to a late-night competency hearing, and the lawyers and doctors involved in the case start explaining that the killer in question -- currently en route with a guard -- is actually a very disturbed man. It doesn't help that his primary psychiatrist is played by Dr. Octopus himself, Alfred Molina. I mean, who'd ever put him in charge of a patient? We get clips of the various folks talking about the killer throughout this sequence; I won't bother flashing back here until about 2/3 of the way through the movie.
Anyway, we now start to meet our lineup of victims. On a dark and stormy night, a working man (played by the awesomely underrated John C. McGinley) fixes his broken-down car and his stepson remains inside; his wife, standing on the side of the road, gets run over by a limo. We flash to the limo, where it turns out that the driver is John Cusack, who apparently mistook McGinley's wife for Jeremy Piven. I kid. He was really distracted because of his passenger, a has-been almost-star played, in a role that stretches her abilities to the limits, by has-been almost-star Rebecca de Mornay. Rebecca is too busy berating her driver and distracting him for him to keep his eyes on the road.
Cusack drives everyone to a nearby run-down hotel, and gets directions to the nearest hospital from the manager. He attempts to drive the still-living car crash victim to the hospital, but the roads are flooded. As a consolation prize, he does get Amanda Peet, as a prostitute retiring to work as a farmer in Florida. They run into a newlywed couple (played by Clea Duvall and William Lee Scott) who are also trapped, and all of them end up back at the hotel, as do a cop (Ray Liotta, playing a nice guy, as always) and his prisoner (Jake Busey). We get a few moments of character conflict and development (Cusack was a cop! McGinley's stepson is mute! Amanda Peet is the Cutest Ho since Pretty Woman!) , and now it's time for the killing to begin!
De Mornay finally has her cell phone battery, and boy is she ready to complain to the entire world about her crappy driver and that horrible woman who was inconsiderate enough to get run over. Alas, while she's wandering around outside, someone has the audacity to stab her to death!
Cusack hears the screams, goes out to investigate, and finds her head shoved into a dryer in the laundry room of the hotel. And she's got a hotel key with her, listing room 10. Liotta's cop and the hotel manager join him. We discover that Jake Busey has escaped from where Liotta handcuffed him to a toilet. Between the storm and the murderer on the loose, tensions are running high, and the newlyweds get into a huge fight that leads to the wife storming off and locking herself in her bathroom. Her hubby follows her and they argue through the door, where we learn that she wasn't really pregnant (turns out she lied to stop him from flirting with other girls and to get him to marry her, something that worked until he saw Amanda Peet). While they argue, we hear noises, and all of a sudden, the husband isn't arguing anymore. When she peeks out, she discovers that she's a widow!
She manages to escape through the bathroom window, and as she's doing so, Cusack and Liotta capture Busey again, knocking him out and tying him to a chair. We're already starting to suspect that Busey couldn't have killed Clea Duvall's husband (given his capture soon after), but we then cut back to our other storyline, where the prisoner being debated is wheeled in, and he's someone we've never seen before! Well, unless you count the fact that he's the guy from Deadwood who killed his brother over a gold claim last season. But the point is, whatever we thought was going on with this hearing, it doesn't seem to involve any of the other characters we've met.
Back to the hotel. The survivors continue to search for whoever the real killer is, but the hotel manager, who was supposed to guard Busey, wanders off. When Liotta runs to check on his prisoner, he finds the prisoner dead, with a baseball bat shoved down his throat! Everyone accuses the manager (who has been making off with Rebecca de Mornay's wallet) of being shady, and when the manager reacts by grabbing Amanda Peet and holding a knife to her throat, he doesn't exactly make a great case for himself. It gets worse when, in the ensuing struggle, the deep freeze is opened, and there's a body in it! The manager is about to make his escape in a truck, but John McGinley's stepson wanders into his way, and as the driver swerves and crashes, McGinley dives to save his son, sacrificing his own life in the process.
The driver is tied up (even as he explains that the previous manager was already dead when he got to the hotel), and the survivors regroup. New widow Clea Duvall makes the And Then There Were None connection, and wonders if all of them have something in common. We learn a few common notes (the manager and Amanda Peet are from the same small town, etc.), but before they can continue reasoning things out, they discover that the mother of the little boy has finally died from her injuries. But the survivors are creeped out to discover yet another hotel key in her hand, with the number six. When they check on McGinley's body, he has key number seven, even though they all saw him die by sacrificing himself.
Cusack orders Duvall to take the one usable car and drive away with the boy. As the others talk, we see Duvall and the kid enter the car, and a second later, we see a huge fireball arise! When the others finally put out the flames, they're amazed to find no bodies! And when they head back to the hotel, the bodies of McGinley and company are gone as well! Something strange is going on! And just to make things even stranger, we learn that all the folks (dead and alive) at the hotel share the same birthday: May 10! Now, we all know that you need at least 23 people in a room for there to be even odds of even two overlapping birthdays*, so the odds of everyone here sharing that date seem awfully slim. Also, we discover that all the characters are named after states (Caroline, Virginia, and last names like Washington and Dakota).
We cut back to the judge and the competency hearing, where we get answers! See, the killer being judged actually suffers from CMPD, also known as Cinematic Multiple Personality Disorder, a form of MPD that only appears in movies like Identity and Never Talk to Strangers** and TV shows like Heroes. This was brought about by his prostitute mother leaving him alone at hotels while she entertained johns. Or something. And Doc Ock is helping the patient cure himself by killing off the aberrant personalities until the evil ones are gone. It makes perfect sense, as long as you don't think too much about it***. So, as long as only the good personalities survive, the patient will be cured!
Now, let's visit the magical world inside the killer's head again! Amanda Peet comes across some court papers in the cop's car, and she's amazed to discover that the psychotic Ray Liotta isn't really a cop! In fact, he's a convict who killed a cop and assumed his identity (yes, even inside this guy's head, there are plot twists, deceptions, and backstory).The ensuing struggle sees the manager get shot, and then Liotta and Cusack and up killing each other, leaving Peet to get away. Out in the real world, the judge is convinced that the guy is okay (remind me to end up on his court if I ever commit a crime), and allows the killer to be sent to an institution instead of the electric chair. Happy ending!
But wait! We cut back to the killer's mind, where we see Amanda Peet, happily farming away in Florda. But who should appear but the little kid! Oh no! He's really the evil killing personality! And he tells Peet that "whores don't get a second chance," as we get flashes of him committing all of the murders (including luring his stepdad in front of the truck) and Peet, the final "good" personality, is stabbed to death, and in the real world, our killer strangles his doctor and escapes! Happy ending for psychotic little boys in the bodies of adult killers!
Identity could have been a train wreck. It certainly requires some serious suspension of disbelief. But the solid cast (John Cusack? In a horror movie?) and sharp direction by James Mangold (who also gave us Walk the Line) make this into a sharp and enjoyable little horror movie. The screenplay, by Michael Cooney (who also gave us Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman), is witty and throws in enough twists to keep the audience guessing. Identity will never be a classic, but it's one of the sharper slasher films in recent years.
*Seriously. If you don't believe me, why the hell haven't you Googled it by now?
**What is it with Rebecca de Mornay and MPD?
***If you're thinking about it right now, you're thinking too much about it.
Most slasher films have an element of And Then There Were None in them. We're exposed to a group of victims, and we watch them get picked off one-by-one. Few follow the ATTWN formula as closely as Identity, however. What's impressive about this fun little movie is how it takes a tried-and-true formula and twists it into a completely different sort of story.
A quick note: because the movie plays (deliberately) fast and loose with time, my summary might place the occasional scene out of order.
In Identity, we see what are essentially two simultaneous stories. A judge is called to a late-night competency hearing, and the lawyers and doctors involved in the case start explaining that the killer in question -- currently en route with a guard -- is actually a very disturbed man. It doesn't help that his primary psychiatrist is played by Dr. Octopus himself, Alfred Molina. I mean, who'd ever put him in charge of a patient? We get clips of the various folks talking about the killer throughout this sequence; I won't bother flashing back here until about 2/3 of the way through the movie.
Anyway, we now start to meet our lineup of victims. On a dark and stormy night, a working man (played by the awesomely underrated John C. McGinley) fixes his broken-down car and his stepson remains inside; his wife, standing on the side of the road, gets run over by a limo. We flash to the limo, where it turns out that the driver is John Cusack, who apparently mistook McGinley's wife for Jeremy Piven. I kid. He was really distracted because of his passenger, a has-been almost-star played, in a role that stretches her abilities to the limits, by has-been almost-star Rebecca de Mornay. Rebecca is too busy berating her driver and distracting him for him to keep his eyes on the road.
Cusack drives everyone to a nearby run-down hotel, and gets directions to the nearest hospital from the manager. He attempts to drive the still-living car crash victim to the hospital, but the roads are flooded. As a consolation prize, he does get Amanda Peet, as a prostitute retiring to work as a farmer in Florida. They run into a newlywed couple (played by Clea Duvall and William Lee Scott) who are also trapped, and all of them end up back at the hotel, as do a cop (Ray Liotta, playing a nice guy, as always) and his prisoner (Jake Busey). We get a few moments of character conflict and development (Cusack was a cop! McGinley's stepson is mute! Amanda Peet is the Cutest Ho since Pretty Woman!) , and now it's time for the killing to begin!
De Mornay finally has her cell phone battery, and boy is she ready to complain to the entire world about her crappy driver and that horrible woman who was inconsiderate enough to get run over. Alas, while she's wandering around outside, someone has the audacity to stab her to death!
Cusack hears the screams, goes out to investigate, and finds her head shoved into a dryer in the laundry room of the hotel. And she's got a hotel key with her, listing room 10. Liotta's cop and the hotel manager join him. We discover that Jake Busey has escaped from where Liotta handcuffed him to a toilet. Between the storm and the murderer on the loose, tensions are running high, and the newlyweds get into a huge fight that leads to the wife storming off and locking herself in her bathroom. Her hubby follows her and they argue through the door, where we learn that she wasn't really pregnant (turns out she lied to stop him from flirting with other girls and to get him to marry her, something that worked until he saw Amanda Peet). While they argue, we hear noises, and all of a sudden, the husband isn't arguing anymore. When she peeks out, she discovers that she's a widow!
She manages to escape through the bathroom window, and as she's doing so, Cusack and Liotta capture Busey again, knocking him out and tying him to a chair. We're already starting to suspect that Busey couldn't have killed Clea Duvall's husband (given his capture soon after), but we then cut back to our other storyline, where the prisoner being debated is wheeled in, and he's someone we've never seen before! Well, unless you count the fact that he's the guy from Deadwood who killed his brother over a gold claim last season. But the point is, whatever we thought was going on with this hearing, it doesn't seem to involve any of the other characters we've met.
Back to the hotel. The survivors continue to search for whoever the real killer is, but the hotel manager, who was supposed to guard Busey, wanders off. When Liotta runs to check on his prisoner, he finds the prisoner dead, with a baseball bat shoved down his throat! Everyone accuses the manager (who has been making off with Rebecca de Mornay's wallet) of being shady, and when the manager reacts by grabbing Amanda Peet and holding a knife to her throat, he doesn't exactly make a great case for himself. It gets worse when, in the ensuing struggle, the deep freeze is opened, and there's a body in it! The manager is about to make his escape in a truck, but John McGinley's stepson wanders into his way, and as the driver swerves and crashes, McGinley dives to save his son, sacrificing his own life in the process.
The driver is tied up (even as he explains that the previous manager was already dead when he got to the hotel), and the survivors regroup. New widow Clea Duvall makes the And Then There Were None connection, and wonders if all of them have something in common. We learn a few common notes (the manager and Amanda Peet are from the same small town, etc.), but before they can continue reasoning things out, they discover that the mother of the little boy has finally died from her injuries. But the survivors are creeped out to discover yet another hotel key in her hand, with the number six. When they check on McGinley's body, he has key number seven, even though they all saw him die by sacrificing himself.
Cusack orders Duvall to take the one usable car and drive away with the boy. As the others talk, we see Duvall and the kid enter the car, and a second later, we see a huge fireball arise! When the others finally put out the flames, they're amazed to find no bodies! And when they head back to the hotel, the bodies of McGinley and company are gone as well! Something strange is going on! And just to make things even stranger, we learn that all the folks (dead and alive) at the hotel share the same birthday: May 10! Now, we all know that you need at least 23 people in a room for there to be even odds of even two overlapping birthdays*, so the odds of everyone here sharing that date seem awfully slim. Also, we discover that all the characters are named after states (Caroline, Virginia, and last names like Washington and Dakota).
We cut back to the judge and the competency hearing, where we get answers! See, the killer being judged actually suffers from CMPD, also known as Cinematic Multiple Personality Disorder, a form of MPD that only appears in movies like Identity and Never Talk to Strangers** and TV shows like Heroes. This was brought about by his prostitute mother leaving him alone at hotels while she entertained johns. Or something. And Doc Ock is helping the patient cure himself by killing off the aberrant personalities until the evil ones are gone. It makes perfect sense, as long as you don't think too much about it***. So, as long as only the good personalities survive, the patient will be cured!
Now, let's visit the magical world inside the killer's head again! Amanda Peet comes across some court papers in the cop's car, and she's amazed to discover that the psychotic Ray Liotta isn't really a cop! In fact, he's a convict who killed a cop and assumed his identity (yes, even inside this guy's head, there are plot twists, deceptions, and backstory).The ensuing struggle sees the manager get shot, and then Liotta and Cusack and up killing each other, leaving Peet to get away. Out in the real world, the judge is convinced that the guy is okay (remind me to end up on his court if I ever commit a crime), and allows the killer to be sent to an institution instead of the electric chair. Happy ending!
But wait! We cut back to the killer's mind, where we see Amanda Peet, happily farming away in Florda. But who should appear but the little kid! Oh no! He's really the evil killing personality! And he tells Peet that "whores don't get a second chance," as we get flashes of him committing all of the murders (including luring his stepdad in front of the truck) and Peet, the final "good" personality, is stabbed to death, and in the real world, our killer strangles his doctor and escapes! Happy ending for psychotic little boys in the bodies of adult killers!
Identity could have been a train wreck. It certainly requires some serious suspension of disbelief. But the solid cast (John Cusack? In a horror movie?) and sharp direction by James Mangold (who also gave us Walk the Line) make this into a sharp and enjoyable little horror movie. The screenplay, by Michael Cooney (who also gave us Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman), is witty and throws in enough twists to keep the audience guessing. Identity will never be a classic, but it's one of the sharper slasher films in recent years.
*Seriously. If you don't believe me, why the hell haven't you Googled it by now?
**What is it with Rebecca de Mornay and MPD?
***If you're thinking about it right now, you're thinking too much about it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 12:16 am (UTC)WIN. (I'm not even totally sure why, but this note makes me giggle.)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 12:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 01:03 am (UTC)The only person to get a good performance out of him that wasn't annoying to the hilt was Peter Jackson. Jackson basically just played him to his over the top frantic style, so it worked.
They should make an Identity 2... this time with Gary Busey, Nick Nolte and Dennis Hopper, as the facets of a personality. Maybe Ben Stiller's. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 01:08 am (UTC)You mean like this one (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450385/)?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 01:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 02:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 03:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 06:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 01:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 01:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 02:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-06 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-07 01:35 am (UTC)But by the end of the pretty cool opening credits, every one was hooked and you could hear a pin drop in the theater.
I was actually thinking about 'Identity' after I saw 'The Number 23' with Jim Carrey last week; I wished that '23' had a twist as good as 'Identity's.'
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-07 04:31 pm (UTC)