Identity (2003 film)

Identity is a 2003 American mystery thriller 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.

Identity
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Mangold
Written byMichael Cooney
Produced byCathy Konrad
Starring
CinematographyPhedon Papamichael Jr.
Edited byDavid Brenner
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • April 25, 2003 (2003-04-25)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$28 million[1]
Box office$90.3 million[1]

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 are 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.

The film grossed $90 million. It received polarized reviews from critics at the time of release, but has since slowly garnered a cult following.

Plot

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

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

With the group all in separate rooms, Suzanne is killed by an unknown assailant. Ed discovers Suzanne's head in a dryer, along with the number 10 motel key. Maine is suspected to be the killer as he has escaped. Ginny locks herself in the bathroom to escape Lou during a fight, only for the unknown assailant to murder Lou out of Ginny's sight.

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

While taking photos of Lou's crime scene, Ed finds the number 9 key in Lou's hands. He begins to suspect that 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 Maine, but suspicion falls on him when Maine is found dead. Rhodes and Ed find the number 8 key next to his body, and harass Larry, who takes Paris hostage. Paris wrestles him off, causing Larry to attempt to escape in his truck, but he 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 other guests to stay until dawn. Larry convinces Paris and Ed that he is not the perpetrator by telling them how he ended up at the motel. Alice, still in bed, is checked on and presumably has died from her injuries, but Rhodes finds the number 6 key. George's body is recovered and the number 7 key is found in his pocket, which confuses the others.

Ed tells Ginny and Timmy to flee in a car, but it explodes upon their arrival. The last four survivors discover that the bodies of all the previous victims have disappeared. Paris has a mental breakdown, revealing her birthday on May 10; it transpires that all eleven people were born on May 10 — which is also Malcolm's birthday, and the day he committed the murders.

Ed checks their ID cards in the office, discovering that each one of them is named after a state, and that their birthdays all match. With Dr. Malick calling out to him, Ed finds he is at the hearing, but is confused as to why he is there. Dr. Malick explains that 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 try to eliminate them.

As Ed returns to the motel, Paris finds convict-transportation files for both Maine and Rhodes in the police car, revealing Rhodes is a criminal acting as an officer. Rhodes attacks Paris, but she is saved by Larry, who is shot to death by Rhodes. Finally believing Rhodes to be the murderous personality, Ed goes after him and the two men end up shooting each other fatally, leaving only Paris still alive.

With the homicidal personality removed, Malcolm's execution is stayed and he is ordered to be 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 to her orange grove, she discovers the number 1 key buried in the dirt, and finds Timmy behind her. It is revealed Timmy is actually the murderous personality and that he orchestrated all of the deaths at the motel, including faking his own death. Timmy kills Paris and takes over completely, causing Malcolm to strangle Malick and forcing the van that is en route to the mental institution to swerve off the road and stop before Timmy's voice repeats the poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns one more time.

Cast

Production

All filming was undertaken in the United States. Some took place in Lancaster, California and other places in Los Angeles County, while the majority was shot on a sound stage at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.

Angelo Badalamenti was originally signed to score the film, but his music was replaced with a new score by Alan Silvestri (Silvestri had previously replaced Badalamenti on 1991's Shattered).

Reception

Critical response

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."[2]

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."[3]

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."[4]

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."[5]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 173 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."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Director's response

Since its release, the film gained a small following. In retrospect, 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 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."[9]

Box office performance

Identity opened on April 25, 2003 in the United States and Canada in 2,733 theaters.[1] The film ranked at #1 on its opening weekend, accumulating $16,225,263, with a per theater average of $5,936.[10] The film's five-day gross was $18,677,884.[11]

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.[12] By its third weekend it dropped down to #4 and made $6,477,585, $2,474 per theater average.[13]

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.[1]

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.

References
  1. "Identity (2003)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  2. Ebert, Roger (April 25, 2003). "Identity (2003)" Archived December 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Chicago Sun-Times. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  3. LaSalle, Mick (September 5, 2003). "There's no way out of motel from hell" Archived December 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. SFGate.com. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  4. Lim, Dennis (April 29, 2003). "No Exit: Hell Is Other People" Archived December 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. The Village Voice. VillageVoice.com. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  5. McKay, Brian (August 5, 2003). "Review: Identity (2003)" Archived December 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. eFilmCritic.com. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  6. "Identity (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  7. "Identity (2003)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  8. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
  9. Mikulec, Sven (November 20, 2017). "'Be Inspired to Try Things, Miracles Happen When Someone Takes a Chance': A Conversation with James Mangold". Cinephilia Beyond. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  10. "Weekend Box Office Results for April 25–27". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on January 20, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  11. "Daily Box Office Results for April 29". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  12. "Weekend Box Office Results for May 2–4". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on January 20, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  13. "Weekend Box Office Results for May 9–11". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on February 24, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.

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.
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