010 - Suture

Synopsis: Murder, identity switch, amnesia, dreams, phew!!

Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel

Actors: Dennis Haysbert, Mel Harris

Date: 1995

How viewed: Bought, Amazon, £7.95

Rating: 5/5

David Meyer says:

It's a murder mystery, a love story, an existential paradigm on the essential obscurity of self and a nasty lesson on assumptions of racial identity

I say:

This is more like it - this is why I want to watch all these films - to find the odd undiscovered gem. The DVD is not available in the UK, but I bought a copy from Amazon (an NTSC Region 0 (all regions) DVD from New Zealand) which was fine. This film is shot in black and white and indeed is all about black and white. The story is relatively simple - Vincent is under suspicion of killing his father, so plans to kill his identical half-brother Clay and make his escape with everyone assuming that the dead body will be identified as him (Vincent). But the plan backfires, and Clay survives, but with amnesia. Everyone assumes he is Vincent, but slowly he starts to regain his memory, and eventually there is the inevitable showdown. OK so far?? The twist is that Vincent is white, and Clay is black, but no one (not even they) seem to notice. So there's a real mix of stuff going on here - it's a film noir, it's very arty, the plot is worthy of Hitchcock, the dream sequences are Freudian, and it addresses all sorts of questions about race, and also it's just weird! I found a Time Out review which said: 'This first feature is a witty, imaginative noir thriller exploring questions of identity, memory, and the duality of mind and body. In this last respect, the seemingly perverse decision to have Vincent and Clay played, respectively, by a white and a black actor makes perfect sense, complementing the balanced ironies and structural antitheses of the narrative. Most impressive.' I agree, most impressive!!