Identity (film)
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| Identity | |
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 Identity film poster |
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| Directed by | James Mangold |
| Produced by | Cathy Konrad |
| Written by | Michael Cooney |
| Starring | John Cusack Ray Liotta Amanda Peet |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Editing by | David Brenner |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 2003 |
| Running time | 90 minutes. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Identity is a 2003 psychological horror film, directed by James Mangold and written by Michael Cooney. The film stars John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet. The plot is based loosely on Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None.
The film tells two stories. Ten strangers, after a series of accidents, find themselves stranded at the same motel during a rainstorm, where they start suffering increasingly horrible deaths. Elsewhere, at an emergency midnight meeting, a doctor attempts to convince a judge that a serial killer about to go to his death is, in fact, insane and cannot be held accountable for his actions. The convergence of these two stories marks an unusual plot twist.
The film, which was modestly budgeted, exceeded expectations at the box-office. This was largely attributed to a clever advertising campaign, which went on to win several "Best of..." awards that year. It was also reasonably well received in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The film was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in 2003.
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[edit] Characters
- John Cusack as Ed Dakota, a limousine driver for actress Caroline Suzanne. Ed turns out to be an experienced police officer on extended medical leave due to the pressures of the job; his sense of duty and police instincts re-emerge during the crisis at the motel.
- Ray Liotta as Rhodes, a hotheaded police detective transporting a convicted serial killer
- Amanda Peet as Paris, a hooker who is on her way home, hoping to leave her life behind
- John Hawkes (né Perkins) as Larry Washington, a compulsive gambler who wandered into a motel and, finding the manager dead, decided on a whim to become the de facto manager when travelers unexpectedly showed up and asked him for a room
- Alfred Molina as Dr. Malick, a psychiatrist working for Malcolm Rivers's defense
- Clea DuVall as Ginny, a newlywed, married to Lou
- John C. McGinley as George York,the high strung, orderly husband of Alice York and step-father of Timmy York
- William Lee Scott as Lou, Ginny's unloving husband
- Jake Busey as Robert Maine, a convicted serial killer being transported across Nevada
- Pruitt Taylor Vince as Malcolm Rivers, a convicted serial killer who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder) and about to be executed.
- Rebecca De Mornay as Caroline Suzanne, a high maintenance B-movie star who is being driven by Ed. She is very insincere after Ed accidentally hits Alice with his car.
- Carmen Argenziano as Defense Lawyer
- Marshall Bell as District Attorney
- Leila Kenzle as Alice York, wife of George York and mother of Timmy York.
- Matt Letscher as Assistant District Attorney
- Bret Loehr as Timmy York, the young son of Alice York and step-son of George York
- Holmes Osborne as Judge Taylor
- Frederick Coffin as Detective Varole
- Joe Hart as Bailiff Jenkins
- Michael Hirsch as Naked Businessman
- Terence Bernie as Hines Bailiff
- Stuart M. Besser as Frozen Body
[edit] Trivia
- Several endings were filmed, in order to shroud the real conclusion in secrecy.
- The poem "As I was going up the stairs / I met a man who wasn't there. / He wasn't there again today / I wish, I wish he'd go away", which a character claims to have once written, is actually a poem by Hughes Mearns. That same poem appears in the movie Velvet Goldmine.
- There was some location shooting in Lancaster and other places in Los Angeles County, but the majority of the movie was shot on an enormous sound stage at Sony Studios in Culver City. Since much of the film takes place during a rainstorm, several gallons of water were used to recreate it. Director James Mangold credits this production element with making several of the actors come down with colds.[citation needed]
- The book featured within the film, during a car scene was "Being and Nothingness" by Jean-Paul Sartre.
- A life-size dummy created to depict a murdered character with a baseball bat lodged in his throat was given to one of the studio executives who asked to keep it as a souvenir. It was stored in his office closet, until a cleaning woman opened the closet and was frightened out of her wits. The dummy was removed from the offices immediately after that incident.
- The psychiatrist calls dissociative identity disorder by the wrong name (disassociative).
- Several film critics have noted the similarity of this film to the fictional film The 3 (A film within a film in Adaptation.)
[edit] Still Photos
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[edit] Plot twist
Ed soon finds himself in the room where the trial is taking place. During questioning by the doctor, Ed is told that Malcolm Rivers, the man being tried for the murders four years prior, has multiple personality syndrome, and that Ed is one of the identities. Stunned but in denial, Ed is handed a mirror, which shows Malcolm's face, revealing the shocking truth. After having a tantrum in horror, Ed is told that Malcolm is undergoing a treatment where all his identities are confronting one another, and are systematically reduced. One of the identities took over his body and caused the murders he is being tried for, and the only way for Malcolm to evade the death penalty is to permanently stifle the homocidal personality.
The second major plot twist is that the young boy, Timmy York, turns out to be the psychopathic personality. At the end of the film, Malcolm is spared the death penalty. The hooker Paris personality is 'killed' by the Timmy personality, who then takes over Malcolm's body and proceeds to strangle Dr. Malick.
