IDENTITY
Regardless of how scary the real world is, cinema can still rightly be a
place that entertainingly terrifies us.
Director James Mangold's film attempts to do this, and to some extent he
succeeds. After opening with the best setup I've seen in years, whereby one
event leads to another which leads to yet another and using non-linear time
to do this, one can't help but mourn "Identity"'s going to movie mush.
We have an assortment of characters from different places and with different
directions in life. They end up at the cosiest motel since Norman Bates' on
an aptly dark and stormy cinematic night. The tension almost transcends the
screen before us, making me slightly twitch in my seat at certain bits. The
cast, including John Cusack and Ray Liotta, do a good enough job. Yet about
45 minutes in, Michael Cooney's script let me down. The film becomes another
one-by-one slasher flick, where the main entertainment consists of guessing
who'll go next: the hysterical newlywed semi-bimbo or the neurotic husband
whose wife got run over.
I guess the filmmakers had hoped that their redemption might come in the
form of two jaw-dropping twists. Actually, this is not the case. Either you'
ve worked them out before they happen or when they do befall you, your
reaction will consist of a cognisant sigh. If we are to talk about a
dominant theme that connects all the deaths, we can't overlook the killer's
paranoid sense of morality, whereby escorts are 'dirty whores' and women who
should be treated as animals more than as people. Why this is the case is
never really explained: we're either supposed to speculate about it or be
too overwhelmed to ponder it.
Despite all this, I think Mangold and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael
create a wonderful ambiance that at times almost absorbed me completely. If
you want to sit through a tense hour and a half (well, the first 45 minutes
are impeccable, the rest is passable) then you shouldn't go past "Identity".
Andrew Staker
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