The tagline for Identity whispers that "Identity is a secret." For those of you who believe that, I've got about 243 spam emails to forward your way, many of which seem to think I have, uh, 'macho' problems in the bedroom.

To those who believe the ads touting Identity as a horror flick, please think otherwise as you plunk down your $8 for a ticket. There aren't any jumpy moments, there are no any scenes where you squint your eyes because you expect something horrible to happen. Stuff happens, but it's methodical. You watch as a viewer, interested, but detached.

Don't take that to mean that I disliked the movie. In fact, I recommend it as a psychological thriller.

Just embrace the obvious look of the Bates Motel as the setting, forget the music that crashes and lightning and thunder booming at the right times (i.e. "Scary moments"), and that characters just "happen" to be at the right/wrong places at the right/wrong times, with intuition rampant. The only horror piece missing is a woman in a bikini being chased while falling down a lot. Of course, a sexy dripping wet Amanda Peet could serve that function.

Identity is anything but subtle, with foreshadowing out the wazoo. Yet, it maintains an air of mystery, and contains surprises. Not often would you be able to expect those two sentences to mesh. While you completely look for something to happen, it does, but nothing is what it seems.

The plot involves ten folks drawn together by random events, before "people started dying." Few have common sense, and many freak out in the face of danger and random death and destruction. Wusses. Also mixed in is a multiple killer facing execution, his death in 24 hours under review.

Reliable John Cusack takes the lead, and delivers as always. Siding with John is Amanda Peet, who I thank for settling for better scripts after breaking on the scene in The Whole Nine Yards and "Jack and Jill," then plunging in tripe fare Whipped and Saving Silverman.

Very solid work by the second-tier of actors makes Identity worthwhile, including Rebecca De Mornay, John Hawks, whose honesty provides the timely comedy interspersed, and John C. McGinley, whose neuroses is a far cry from confident and smarmy Dr. Cox of NBC's "Scrubs."

At the very end, though, one might be left with a taste of the movie that doesn't go down as well with the previous hour. The ultimate conclusion is more for giggles with a scene of silliness, and threatens to derail a good ending. The "reasoning" is fine, just the way it's done leaves patrons with furrowed brows.

Despite such an Identity crisis, I still recommend the story for what it was, not what it ends up being.