Rent Identity on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Michael Cooney
Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, William Lee Scott, Jake Busey, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Rebecca De Mornay
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Verdict
This is never a good mystery movie. It becomes increasingly more implausible until we finally get an answer to why. The last third makes this movie better, but it can't save it. It's a neat idea with a questionable execution.
Skip it.
Review
All of these seemingly interconnected characters end up at a seedy motel one night. You get the sense one or some of these people are who they claim to be. This gets dark rather quickly with a gruesome murder. Most of the characters seem like a plausible suspect.
This is little more than a murder mystery by the numbers. Each murder shifts the possible suspects. It gets sillier as every person that dies just happens to have a motel key on them no matter how implausible it seems. When the first key shows up it's odd, the second is strange, and the third becomes ridiculous. You can tell this is driving to something with numerous coincidences due to the murders and the characters.
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| Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet |
Finally, we start to get answers. It's a nice little twist that puts everything into perspective. The movie isn't sure the audience will get it, so we get plenty of exposition to drive the point home. This is a movie where the last act explains away all the problems, and it makes this better, but until the reveal this feels like a generic budget thriller. The conclusion doesn't save the movie, but it does help. You'll leave this thinking it's a good idea that could have been done better.
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