Identity
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: April 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Identity is an outright blast, so fun it's--pardon--scary. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
What starts out as a seemingly-routine excursion into genre clichés emerges into a more complex and satisfying arena than most viewers will anticipate. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
The film mixes the psychological with the supernatural, the profane with the ridiculous, the self-indulgent with the understated, and dares you to assume anything. It's all great fun. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Managed to pull the rug out from under me about three-quarters of the way through, and I still hadn't found my feet when the credits rolled. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Cooney's achingly clever script has more up its sleeve than just Agatha Christie -- he also evokes "Psycho," "The Sixth Sense," "Poltergeist" and "The Omen" -- and the final third dishes up a twist that isn't just surprising, it's revealing Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Fine escapist fare with a saving sense of humor and an underlying premise that, when revealed, proves to be arguably plausible even if a reach. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's not art, but it's fun artfully done. And as long as you're paying less than the price of a cheapo motel for the night, it's worth checking into. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Something fresh, clever and confident. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
So ingeniously constructed that these meta-noir ingredients feel dizzyingly enjoyable, never hackneyed. In fact, the overheated melodrama of Identity is crucial to its method -- and the key, in some ways, to its narrative secrets. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Far and away the most original thriller to come out of a major studio (in this case Columbia Pictures) in a long while. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Cusack is especially good in a role that's got more (and less) going on under the surface, while Peet offers up another coltish, trash-mouthed vamp. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A slick, bloody thriller, but it's also, to its credit, a genuine whodunit. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A fascinating movie that, if you are able to make the leap it asks of you at about the three-quarter mark, will give you something to think and talk about for days. One thing is certain: It isn't predictable. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Builds steadily from its smarter-than-your-average-horror-film beginnings to a genuinely cunning psychological thriller with a third-act twist guaranteed to shock even the most eagle-eyed watchers. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Just loopy enough to be tantalizing, involving, and fun. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The violence and mayhem are constant, though the movie's style is refreshingly old-fashioned -- scream- and laughter-inducing, rather than coldly repulsive in the modern fashion. Read full review
70
Film ThreatKevin Carr
Approaches the serial killer archetype in a tremendously unique way. It turns the old stand-bys on their ears and gives a fresh perspective on the genre. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The hardest work falls to Cusack, a subtle actor with a valuable gift for conveying the sadness and loneliness beneath the skin of even the most jaded and self-contained men-about-town. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's gory, it's bleak, it's shamelessly tricky -- and it's also a good deal more fun than it had any right to be. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
With moments of mind-bending creepiness, the film has potential, but eventually it devolves into merely a head-scratcher. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Some fancy footwork in the writing and directing can't disguise the hoary "Ten Little Indians" origins of Identity. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Reasonably well-executed thriller. It suffers not from awkwardness or silliness, which would make it more fun, but rather from its air-brushed, expensive pretentiousness. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Simultaneously a contrived piece of hokum and an absorbing, old-fashioned mystery. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The puzzle pieces are all there. But when you put them all together, the result is a bit of a gyp — neat but utterly forgettable. Read full review
50
PremierePeter Debruge
The tension's palpable and the deaths are gruesomely inventive (and jarringly abrupt), but the clincher is so far-fetched you may end up wishing you'd opted for the relative reality of a week in Cancun instead. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It's an exasperating exercise in B-movie hokum and screenwriter's gimmickry. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Identity opens with its mind nicely intact, suffers a major crisis about 30 minutes in, then bad turns to worse. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
When its big plot switcheroo comes, it proves to be not such a great idea after all: It actually weakens, rather than strengthens, the premise, and dissipates, rather than intensifies, the drama. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The movie is polished, well-acted and atmospheric, but still pure formula, and not very scary, either. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Identity steams my broccoli big time and not just because its surprise twist is an insult to the intelligence of every audience member. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
Suicidally insecure. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The outcome is alternately unsatisfying, meaningless, contradictory and laughable. Read full review
30
Village VoiceDennis Lim
The ultimate cliché of plot-twist implausibility, the crucial revelation is so outlandishly fatuous it might have given Donald Kaufman pause. Read full review
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