Suture *** (1993, Dennis Haysbert, Mel Harris, Sab Shimono) – Classic Movie Review 2139

Writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s supposedly arty, 1993 black and white neo-noir ‘thriller’ is extremely annoying, but it surprisingly found some fervent admirers and, even more strangely, still stays in the mind years later.

Michael Harris plays a rich white man called Vincent ‘Vince’ Towers who fakes his own death after killing his dad and swaps identities with his poor black half brother Clay Arlington (Dennis Haysbert). Everybody keeps saying they are alike!

Vince is plotting to kill Clay with a bomb while he’s driving in his car, and pass the corpse off as his own, then start a new life elsewhere with his father’s inheritance. But the plot goes wrong. 

This is a ridiculous, infuriating film – all the more so because there’s evidence of a really good movie and very considerable talent hidden inside here. Its evident Antonioni-style intentions to use the thriller to examine truth and illusion are hopelessly unrealised. But still, McGehee and Siegel show they believe it in and deliver it with the courage of their conviction and much style. They went on the make the stupendous The Deep End in 2001, redeeming themselves for ever. And they came back strongly in 2012 with What Maisie Knew.

It is co-produced by Steven Soderbergh with the directors, and also in the cast are Mel Harris as Dr Renee Descartes, Sab Shimono as Dr Max Shinoda, David Graf, Fran Ryan, Dina Merrill, Sandra Lafferty and John Ingle.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2139

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