Identity (2003 film)

Identity
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Mangold
Written by	Michael Cooney
Produced by	Cathy Konrad
Starring	John Cusack Ray Liotta Amanda Peet Alfred Molina Clea DuVall Rebecca De Mornay John Hawkes John C. McGinley William Lee Scott Jake Busey Pruitt Taylor Vince
Cinematography	Phedon Papamichael Jr.
Edited by	David Brenner
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Konrad Pictures
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	April 25, 2003 (2003-04-25)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28 million
Box office	$90.3 million

Identity is a 2003 American slasher film directed by James Mangold, written by Michael Cooney, and starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peet with Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, and Rebecca De Mornay.

Inspired by Agatha Christie's 1939 whodunit And Then There Were None, the film follows ten strangers in an isolated hotel, who are temporarily cut off from the rest of the world and mysteriously killed off one by one. Several events which take place in the hours before the characters' arrival are introduced at key moments in the film using reverse chronology structure and, in a parallel story, a murderer awaits a verdict at a crucial trial that will determine whether he will be executed for his crimes.

Plot

The convict Malcolm Rivers awaits execution for a vicious mass murder that took place at an apartment building. Journals belonging to him are discovered misfiled in the case evidence, which were not introduced during the trial. Malcolm's psychiatrist, Dr. Malick, and his defense attorney argue the journals prove his insanity.

Meanwhile, ten strangers become stranded in a torrential rainstorm at a remote Nevada motel, run by Larry Washington. The group consists of ex-cop, now limousine driver, Ed Dakota; washed-up and irritable actress Caroline Suzanne; Officer Rhodes, who is transporting convicted murderer Robert Maine; sex worker Paris Nevada; newlyweds Lou and Ginny Isiana; and the Yorks: George, Alice (who was severely injured when Ed accidentally hit her with his limo), and their nine-year-old Timmy.

With everyone in separate rooms, Suzanne is killed by an unknown assailant. Ed finds her head in a dryer, along with her number 10 motel key. The escaped Maine is suspected to be the killer. Ginny locks herself in the bathroom during a fight with Lou, only for the unknown assailant to murder him out of Ginny's view.

At the hearing, Malcolm's diaries indicate he suffers from dissociative identity disorder, harboring eleven distinct personalities. His defense attorney argues he is unaware of his crimes, which is in violation of existing Supreme Court rulings on capital punishment. Just as Dr. Malick is introducing the concept of integrating the personalities of someone with this disorder, Malcolm comes in.

While photographing Lou's crime scene, Ed finds the number 9 key in his hands. He deduces the killer is counting down and targeting them in order. Maine fails to escape the motel area, and is subdued by Rhodes and Ed. Larry is instructed to guard him, so suspicion falls on him when Maine is found dead.

Finding the number 8 key near Maine's body, Rhodes and Ed harass Larry, who takes Paris hostage. She wrestles free, so he attempts to escape in his truck, but accidentally crushes George against a dumpster as he tries to save Timmy from being run over.

Rhodes ties Larry to a chair and orders the others to stay until dawn. Larry convinces Paris and Ed he is not the perpetrator by telling them how he wound up there. The bedridden Alice is found dead, presumably from her injuries, but Rhodes finds the number 6 key. When George's body is recovered, the number 7 key is in his pocket, which confuses everyone.

Ed suggests Ginny and Timmy flee in a car, but it explodes upon their arrival. The remaining four discover all the victims's bodies have disappeared. Paris has a mental breakdown, revealing her birthday is on May 10. It is then discovered that all eleven of them were born on May 10 — Malcolm's birthday and the day he committed the murders.

Ed checks their ID cards in the office, discovering they are all named after a state, in addition to having duplicate birthdays. Dr. Malick calls out to Ed, who is confused to be at the hearing. The doctor explains he is one of the personalities that Malcolm Rivers created as a child. Learning one of the personalities committed the murders, Ed is instructed to "go back" to the motel to eliminate them.

Back at the motel, Paris finds convict-transportation files for both Maine and Rhodes in the police car, revealing Rhodes is a criminal disguised as an officer. Rhodes attacks her, Larry saves her, but is then shot dead by Rhodes. Believing Rhodes is the murderous personality, Ed goes after him and they fatally shoot each other, leaving only Paris still alive.

With the homicidal personality removed, Malcolm's execution is stayed and he is placed in a mental institution under Dr. Malick's care. In Malcolm's mind, Paris settles down in her hometown of Frostproof, Florida. As she tends her orange grove, she finds the number 1 key in the dirt, then sees Timmy behind her.

Timmy is the murderous personality who orchestrated all of the motel deaths, including faking his own. He kills Paris, taking over completely, causing Malcolm to strangle Malick and forcing the van en route to the mental institution to swerve off the road and stop. Timmy's voice repeats the poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns once more.

Cast

• John Cusack as Edward “Ed” Dakota, a limousine driver and a former Los Angeles police officer
• Ray Liotta as Samuel Rhodes, a correctional officer transporting Maine, a convicted murderer
• Amanda Peet as Paris Nevada, a sex worker leaving Las Vegas to buy a citrus grove in Florida
• John Hawkes as Larry Washington, the motel manager
• Alfred Molina as Dr. Mallick, Rivers' psychiatrist
• Clea DuVall as Ginny Isiana, a superstitious newlywed
• John C. McGinley as George York, Alice's husband and Timmy's stepfather
• William Lee Scott as Lou Isiana, Ginny's husband
• Jake Busey as Robert Maine, a convicted murderer being transported by Rhodes
• Pruitt Taylor Vince as Malcolm Rivers, a convicted mass murderer
• Rebecca DeMornay as Caroline Suzanne, an '80’s Hollywood TV actress chauffeured by Ed
• Carmen Argenziano as Defense Lawyer and Attorney
• Marshall Bell as District Attorney
• Leila Kenzle as Alice York, George's wife and Timmy's mother who is injured in a car collision
• Matt Letscher as Assistant District Attorney
• Bret Loehr as Timmy York, Alice's son and George's stepson
• Holmes Osborne as Judge Taylor
• Frederick Coffin as Detective Varole
• Stuart M. Besser as Frozen Body Larry

Production

Director James Mangold stated in an interview prior to the film's release that he was attracted to a claustrophobic thriller because "I don't see this as a genre that's tapped out at this point. You can make it sound dead end but these remain some of the most cinematic films ever made, whether you're talking about Rear Window, The Others, Polanski's Knife in the Water, Dead Calm, Carpenter's The Thing, Alien, huge piles of great films that buck conventional wisdom that a movie should be cinematically broad like a Lawrence of Arabia."

Actor John Cusack was pursued for the lead because Mangold and producer Cathy Konrad both felt like he was perfect for the role. As Mangold said in another interview, “When you think of movies like The Grifters, you don't feel like it's such a stretch. I'd met John a few times and there's this great 'Everyman' sense to him. And while there's this great warmth to him, especially as he's grown older, there's also a simplicity, a gravity to him. There's something very solid about John."

Upon being offered the role and sent the script, Cusack stated "I started reading and I thought 'alright well, we'll see how this thing goes', then on page 30 I thought I had it pegged and I didn't. And then on page 50 I thought I had figured it out, but I didn't … and then I kept going this way, and then by the end of it I really hadn't seen any of those things coming. So I thought 'man, that's pretty seamless' because you know I should have figured this out." During an appearance on CBS's The Early Show, Cusack summarized his thoughts by saying "It was one of the most clever scripts I've read in a long time."

90 percent of the film was shot on Stage 27 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Stage 27 is the same sound stage that once housed the Emerald City during production of The Wizard of Oz. Mangold used production designer Mark Friedberg to transform the sound stage into a complex set with endless rain, featuring a motel with a swimming pool, 14 rooms, and surrounding desert. Filming also took place on location at the Four Aces Movie Ranch in Palmdale, which features the motel from which the motel built on Stage 27 was modeled, Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, and other exterior locations in Palmdale and Lancaster, California.

Angelo Badalamenti was originally signed to score the film, but his music was replaced with a new score by Alan Silvestri.

Reception

Box office performance

Identity opened on April 25, 2003 in the United States and Canada in 2,733 theaters. The film ranked at #1 on its opening weekend, accumulating $16,225,263, with a per theater average of $5,936. The film's five-day gross was $18,677,884.

The film dropped down to #3 on its second weekend, behind newly released X2 and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, accumulating $9,423,662 in a 41.9% drop from its first weekend, and per theater average of $3,448. By its third weekend, it dropped down to #4 and made $6,477,585, $2,474 per theater average.

Identity went on to gross $52.1 million in the United States and Canada and $38.1 million overseas. In total, the film has grossed over $90 million worldwide, making it a box office success against its $28 million budget.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's consensus states: "Identity is a film that will divide audiences—the twists of its plot will either impress or exasperate you." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "I've seen a lot of movies that are intriguing for the first two acts and then go on autopilot with a formula ending. Identity is a rarity, a movie that seems to be on autopilot for the first two acts and then reveals that it was not, with a third act that causes us to rethink everything that has gone before. Ingenious, how simple and yet how devious the solution is."

Mick LaSalle of SFGate reported, "At first, Identity seems like nothing more than a pleasing and blatant homage (i.e., rip-off) to the Agatha Christie-style thriller where marooned guests realize that a murderer is in their midst... we've seen it before. Yet make no mistake. Identity is more than an entertaining thriller. It's a highly original one."

The Village Voice's Dennis Lim wrote of the film's premise, "The premise of the one-rainy-night thriller Identity seems like mothballed Agatha Christie," and of the film's third act twist, "The ultimate cliché of plot-twist implausibility, the crucial revelation is so outlandishly fatuous it might have given Donald Kaufman pause. But there's nothing self-parodic about Identity—the viewer must not only swallow the nullifying third-act bombshell but actually re-engage with the movie on its new, extremely dubious terms."

Brian Mckay of eFilmCritic.com wrote, "This film's cardinal sin was not that it had an engrossing but extremely far-fetched setup to a lackluster resolution—a resolution that probably sounded good during the initial script pitch, but which nobody realized was going to be such a misfire until the production was already at the point of no return. No, what Identity is guilty of most is bad timing—it simply gives away too much, too soon. At about the halfway mark (if not much sooner), the film's big "twist" will finally dawn on you (and if it doesn't, they'll end up coming right out and saying it five minutes later anyway). And once it does, you will no longer care what happens afterward."

Director's response and rumored connection to the film Adaptation (2002)

Since its release, the film gained a small following. In 2017, Mangold said he's very "proud" of the movie:

"I love Identity, I love it. In fact, I think some of the filmmaking, the craftsmanship, the image making, is such that I'm very proud of it. Interestingly, when Adaptation (2002) came out, and there's a joke in the movie about someone with split personality, that came out right before Identity. You know the joke? Nic Cage is working on this crazy idea for a movie, the idea that the killer has multiple personalities, and Adaptation came out about three months before Identity. When I saw Adaptation, I realized I was dead. Half the reviews of Identity were going, like, this is the movie about the stupid joke, someone made a movie of the joke in Adaptation. And it was crushing, honestly, it was crushing because I spent a year and a half working on the movie, and it was kind of like half of the reviews were calling it silly. But part of what I loved about Identity, and maybe you too, was that it was so crazy, that it was just a completely crazy movie. And the freedom of the concept meant that you could exist in a more dreamy, fever-dream space with the film, which was very freeing to me, to be this kind of noir And Then There Were None amped up to eleven on the volume knob. It was very exciting for me, and hugely enjoyable, and I'm very proud of the movie."

Accolades

The film was nominated for Best Action, Adventure or Thriller Film and Best DVD Special Edition Release at 30th Saturn Awards, but lost to Kill Bill Volume 1 and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, respectively.

Further reading

• Earnshaw, Tony, ed. (2016). "James Mangold and Cathy Konrad – Identity". Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Filmmakers (Volume 1). BearManor Media. pp. 208–221. ISBN 978-1-59393-944-1.

External links

• Identity at IMDb
• Identity at Rotten Tomatoes
• Identity at Metacritic
• Identity at Box Office Mojo