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Features: DVD, Special Edition, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Widescreen, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Subtitled, French
What if every choice we ever make was already made for us? What if there really were no coincidences in life and our destinies were already predetermined?Ten strangers with secrets are brought together in a savage rainstorm: A limo driver (John Cusack), an '80s TV star (Rebecca DeMornay), a cop (Ray Liotta) who is transporting a killer (Jake Busey), a call girl (Amanda Peet), a pair of newlyweds (Clea DuVall and William Lee Scott) and a family in crisis (John C. McGinley, Leila Kenzle, Bret Loehr), all take shelter at a desolate motel run by a nervous night manager (John Hawkes). Relief in finding shelter is quickly replaced with fear as the ten travelers begin to die, one by one. They soon realize that, if they are to survive, they'll have to uncover the secret that has brought them all together.
"The most satisfying and accomplished thriller in recent memory." Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
"Identity is more than an entertaining thriller. It's a highly original one." Mick Lasalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"Two Thumbs Up!" Ebert & Roeper
Editor's Note
IDENTITY, directed by James Mangold, is a thriller set at an isolated motel in rural Nevada during an unrelenting rainstorm. With all roads washed out and all forms of communication dead, a group of people become stranded at the motel along with the shifty manager (John Hawkes). Among the stranded are Ed (John Cusack), a former cop turned limo driver; Caroline (Rebecca De Mornay), a self-absorbed actress; Paris (Amanda Peet), a prostitute attempting to escape her profession; Rhodes (Ray Liotta), a cop transporting a prisoner (Jake Busey); Lou (William Lee Scott) and Ginny (Clea DuVall), bickering newlyweds; and George (John McGinley) and Alice (Leila Kenzle), a married couple travelling with their young son. Soon the waterlogged lodgers start dying in mysterious--and brutal--ways, and the increasingly dwindling number of survivors must discover the killer to prevent their own demises. Riveting from the opening sequence, Mangold's suspenseful murder mystery wastes no time in turning on the tension. Realizing that truly scary cinema comes from the unknown and the unexpected, Mangold and screenwriter Michael Cooney keep the audience--and the film's characters--in the dark and continually create situations that go from bad to worse for the luckless travelers. Cusack anchors the film as the resigned but noble former policeman, while Peet reveals a depth previously unseen in her other movies. Actors such as Liotta, McGinley, Hawkes, and De Mornay round out the fine ensemble cast. As with many thrillers, IDENTITY has a big twist, but because of the filmmakers' excellent slight of hand, it's unlikely viewers will predict the bizarre outcome.
| Features | Theatrical Trailer | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French | | Audio: Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround Sound | | Filmographies | | Storyboard Comparisons | | STARZ Special: On The Set Of Identity | | Anamorphic Widescreen And Full Screen | | Exclusive Branched Version Of Film With Alternative Ending And Additional Scene | | Director's Commentary | | Deleted Scenes With Director's Commentary |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 9/27/2005 |
| Running Time: 90 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 00539 | | UPC: 00043396005396 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...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..." 04/25/2003 p.E1USA Today
"...John Cusack is convincing....With moments of mind-bending creepiness..." 04/25/2003 p.11E Entertainment Weekly
"...Delighting in his own considerable cleverness and cineast's knowledge of movie history, Mangold shuffles the elements like a three-card-monte pro..." 05/02/2003 p.48-9 Variety
"...A snappily executed little thriller..." 04/21/2003 p.22-7 Chicago Sun-Times
"...With a third act that causes us to rethink everything that has gone before. Ingenious, how simple and yet how devious the solution is..." 04/25/2003 p.37 Los Angeles Times
"...Sleek and clever....IDENTITY is fine escapist fare with a saving sense of humor..." 04/25/2003 p.C22 Total Film
"...Stylish....A clever twist on the old strangers-stranded-in-scary motel plot..." 12/01/2003 p.130 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "Mangold's noir thriller plays like Agatha Christie meets Alfred Hitchcock....A thriller that satisfies the grey matter, IDENTITY deserves to be seen." 05/01/2007 p.85 L.A. Times 7 of 10
Cusack's world-weary but capable former lawman emerges as the beleaguered natural leader, a state of affairs resented by the combustible Liotta, who not unreasonably feels he should be in charge. While many of the others give in to jitters, Peet keeps her cool and emerges as a strong presence. In a welcome change of pace from his usual nasty types, McGinley gets to play a perfectly ordinary guy, a loving husband overwhelmed by circumstances. Identity asks considerable suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer, but Mangold's painstaking, rigorously focused direction provides plenty of incentive to go along with this psychologically complex variation on Agatha Christie's classic Ten Little Indians. - Kevin Thomas
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
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. - Roger Ebert
James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
An out-of-the-way motel. An introverted manager with a skeleton in the closet. Guests who lose their heads at the first signs of trouble. Sound familiar? Although the echoes of Hitchcock are certainly intentional, Identity is not Pscyho, nor does it strive to be. A movie that successfully navigates the line between psychological thriller and slasher horror movie, Identity ultimately metamorphoses into something unexpected and startling. What starts out as a seemingly-routine excursion into genre cliches emerges into a more complex and satisfying arena than most viewers will anticipate. - James Berardinelli
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