AT THE MOVIES WITH KASEY BUTCHER
If there is one thing that really, really makes me happy, it’s a great movie. I remember the first time I saw Gone With The Wind. My mouth just stood open as Rhett walked away into the mist. After a few dumbfounded minutes I took my mom’s copy of the book off the shelf to see if the “frankly my dear” line was the real ending. I couldn’t believe that it really ended that way. Now, although Identity starring John Cusack (Max) is a far cry from Gone With The Wind, it is still an incredible movie that left me with my mouth hanging open and shocked that it could really end the way it did.
Identity is a story of chilling coincidences that lead ten strangers to a motel during a violent storm. The highway is flooded in both directions, so there is no place else to go and no way for help to get to them. Among the strangers there is the manager of the motel (John Hawkes), two newlyweds, an actress (Rebecca DeMornay), a retired police officer (Cusack), a prostitute (Amanda Peet), a married couple and their son, a police escort (Ray Liotta), and a violent convict. The convict soon disappears, people start to die, and their bodies soon disappear as well. The strangers later discover that they all have the same birthday- May 10th, and they are all named after places. Everyone becomes a suspect, and the movie becomes a who-dunnit with two GIGANTIC plot twists that’ll leave the audience shocked but satisfied.
I have NEVER given a movie a rating of five, but this movie deserves it. It latches on to the audience from the very start and takes them on a twisted journey until the very last jaw dropping second. It was amazing. The more I think about it the more brilliant it becomes. I expected it to just be the average thriller, but it is so much more. It is an intellectual scary movie, very much like The Sixth Sense.
Identity is a darkly depicted film that will come to mind every time it rains and I’ll certainly never look at a washing machine the same way again. It is beautifully done (if horror-flicks can be beautiful). It is a real work of cinematographic art.
The movie toys with our assumptions about the characters actors usually play (<cough> John Cusack). It makes you guess just about everyone until you find out who the killer really is. The funny thing is, I guessed it as a joke. Imagine my friend’s shock when I was right. The acting is good, but it is really the story line that makes the film amazing. My mind was left spinning. This, however, may have been a problem for some moviegoers. I heard a few people expressing confusion as they left the theater. Definitely go see it, and if it confuses you, e-mail me at cbutcher@wowo.com and I’ll gladly explain.
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