Identity

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: April 25, 2003

8.5	USER SCORE Universal acclaim based on 485 Ratings

USER RATING DISTRIBUTION

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Review this movie

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Please sign in or create an account before writing a review.

Check box if your review contains spoilers

0 characters (5000 max)

User Reviews

User score By date Most helpful

TyranianMar 3, 2020

Fairly well-made and acted but stumbles between predictable and unbelievable.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

All this user's reviews

imthenoobJun 18, 2013

Solid acting by the cast with Cusack easily being the star of the film. The plot twist added some much needed interest into the film, which was lacking through out, and actually made it some-what worth watching. I just didn't care for it thatSolid acting by the cast with Cusack easily being the star of the film. The plot twist added some much needed interest into the film, which was lacking through out, and actually made it some-what worth watching. I just didn't care for it that much, It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.… Expand

0 of 8 users found this helpful08

All this user's reviews

beingryanjudeSep 1, 2014

A thinker, a real complex thinker. Not at all a bad thing; however, when the audience is neglected and one too many turns are made, it no longer is enjoyable.

0 of 40 users found this helpful040

All this user's reviews

Compi24Nov 28, 2012

"Identity" is a 2003 James Mangold Directed film about 10 strangers who meet at a seedy Nevada motel and soon realize that they are being killed off one by one. Let me start off by saying that I love a good thriller. If you have an intriguing"Identity" is a 2003 James Mangold Directed film about 10 strangers who meet at a seedy Nevada motel and soon realize that they are being killed off one by one. Let me start off by saying that I love a good thriller. If you have an intriguing premise and a good touch of tasteful twists here and there, I'll ultimately find the movie to be, to some degree, good. "Identity" definitely possessed the former, but tricked me with the latter. From the moment this movie starts you are almost immediately pulled into it's fascinating plot. And as the movie goes on, twists ensue, leading you to reconsider every view of every character in the film. However, the last twist of this film, in short, angered me. I found the final twist of the film to make sense, but it was the most unsatisfying ending I could have imagined this film to present. The film presented an incredibly new type of plot for me and in my opinion fudged up the ending a bit. However, every minute up to the last 5 were pretty thrilling and intense. All of the actors did a good job in their roles and their lines were fairly well written. The direction by Mangold is really quite beautiful - he really creates some unsettling imagery here. Overall, I can say that "Identity" was a enjoyable movie. . .up until the end.… Expand

0 of 8 users found this helpful08

All this user's reviews

MovieMasterEddyApr 3, 2016

When All or Nothing Is What It Seems.

In "Identity," which opens today nationwide, a group of strangers find themselves stranded at a ramshackle motel on — how to put it? — a dark and stormy night. Like the setting, the charactersWhen All or Nothing Is What It Seems.

In "Identity," which opens today nationwide, a group of strangers find themselves stranded at a ramshackle motel on — how to put it? — a dark and stormy night. Like the setting, the characters themselves have the damp, bedraggled air of cliché. There is a spoiled, has-been actress (Rebecca DeMornay), whose limo driver, a former policeman (John Cusack), has apparently driven in from a French movie, with his dark overcoat and his dog-eared copy of "Being and Nothingness." These two are joined by a creepy desk clerk (John Hawkes), a call girl with a suitcase full of money (Amanda Peet), a nice-looking family (John C. McGinley is the dad), a desperate-seeming young couple (Clea DuVall and William Lee Scott), and a corrections officer (Ray Liotta) transporting a snaggle-toothed criminal (Jake Busey).

This is an awful lot to keep track of, especially since each of these folks seems to be carrying around a secret. Before long, though, they begin to die off, horribly, one by one, leaving the survivors and the audience to speculate about who the killer, and the next victim, might be. The desperate-seeming young wife has a vague recollection of seeing something similar in a movie once before, though she declines to cite the title, which is either "And Then There Were None" or its send-up, "Murder by Death."

"Identity," a piece of elegant directorial hackwork by James Mangold ("Girl, Interrupted," "Kate and Leopold"), goes through its generic paces with enough flair and mystery to keep you moderately entertained. The apparent premise, creaky though it may be, holds ample opportunity for suspense and second-guessing, and Mr. Mangold handles the revelations and reversals of Michael Cooney's script with nerve-racking aplomb. There are horror-film conventions — eerie sounds, slow camera movements, half-open doors and carefully arranged shadows — that retain their effectiveness no matter how many times you've seen them before, and Mr. Mangold adds to these a grisly repertory of severed heads and bloody handprints.

The second-handness of the situation, and of the characters who inhabit it, is explained — or justified, if you prefer — by an enormous, gold-plated pretzel of a plot twist that I will not divulge, lest my own head end up in someone's clothes dryer. I should note, however, that the television commercial in which Mr. Cusack is shown in conversation with Alfred Molina comes very close to spoiling the surprise, which is odd since without the surprise the movie would have no reason to exist.

Whether it has much of a reason to exist with the surprise is another question. Once it is clear you are no longer watching the movie you thought you were watching, there doesn't seem to be much point in going back to the movie that you thought you were watching, which is nonetheless what happens. Still with me? When the revelation comes — the moment that explains why all these panicky people are running around in the rain miles from anywhere — it does administer a pleasurable jolt. You think: "Wow. Cool."

But the impression of cleverness, and the filmmaking dexterity that created it, fades pretty quickly, and you are left thinking: "What? Wait a minute." All of those anxious, obvious characters — and the game, earnest performances of, especially, Mr. Cusack, Ms. Peet and Mr. Hawkes — suddenly lose dimension, and they did not have all that much to begin with.

"Identity" is a 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. Like last year's "Panic Room," the springtime box-office success of which Sony may be hoping to repeat, "Identity" is a dressed-up B picture, a hunk of cheese trying to sneak into the gourmet food aisle of the supermarket.

The cheap grubbiness that was always the hallmark of the best horror movies, and that survives in straighforwardly exploitative pictures like the recent "Final Destination 2," is missing from preening high-concept movies like this one and the disastrous "Dreamcatcher." Mr. Mangold acquits himself much better than Lawrence Kasdan did in that nightmare, and "Identity" is not terrible by any means, but there is nonetheless something depressing about seeing so many interesting actors stuffed into such an empty, ersatz vehicle.… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

All this user's reviews

RaduAApr 12, 2019

60/100

It's meh ... Well, I didn't really like it. The acting is decent, a story I've seen many times before, is filmed ok... I think. There are some twists ... one is ok but the rest are useless. I do not know what to say... I could60/100

It's meh ...
Well, I didn't really like it. The acting is decent, a story I've seen many times before, is filmed ok... I think. There are some twists ... one is ok but the rest are useless.
I do not know what to say... I could have seen something better...… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

All this user's reviews

JamesH.Dec 26, 2009

I could not get into this movie, I found it rather stupid and the twist in it was just ridiculous. Decent acting and atmosphere, but not much else.

0 of 0 users found this helpful