Identity (Mangold, 2003)

For those of you that enjoy a classic psychological thriller Identity (Mangold, 2003) may just be up your alley. This film fits perfectly into the frame work of a psychological thriller, twist included which does mean that it only really works once. I guess you could watch it again but I doubt that it would have the same impact that makes the first watch enjoyable. Identity is a murder mystery about ten people that all end up stuck in a motel because of an incredibly heavy storm. As time passes the characters are murdered one by one, and of course panic ensues and John Cusack tries to figure out who has been killing everyone. There are clues to the twist if you’re looking for them, which I’m sure if you’re a thriller veteran you probably look out for without being told about their existence.

For recommendation, as I said earlier, if you like a thriller (especially psychological) you will most likely enjoy this film. This is because it has many of the common tropes that makes the genre what it is. The music is perfectly timed to get those jump scares out of you and the lighting works very well with the storm setting to create a very tense atmosphere. These two aspects in combination make for a very suitable atmosphere, especially if you watch it in the dark (as one should with ‘scary’ films). The storm setting lends itself very nicely to the film as it allows for a situation where lights will flicker, lightning bolts can light up just enough of the space, phone lines are out, etc. It adds to the tense atmosphere that pulls audiences into this kind of a film.

The performances are slightly irritating if I had to pick one thing out that doesn’t really work for me. It’s just very over the top, although it would probably be somewhat unbelievable if they did anything else. Some of the lines are kind of clunky and sound rather awkward. Overall the performance suits the piece but is very expected for that reason, none of the actor do a bad job it’s more a problem with specific lines that probably wouldn’t work no matter how amazing the actor.

Overall, a rather good film to just sit back and enjoy (not sure how correct that word is here). It makes you think as most mystery narratives do but isn’t too overly complicated that you can’t keep up and lose interest. Certainly not art and doesn’t do anything very outside of the genre it resides within. Although that makes it easy to recommend to people that like other psychological thrillers such as Shutter Island and the like.  

Rating: 3 out of 5

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