Suture

Vincent Towers is a rich man suspected of being responsible for his father's death. At the funeral he meets Clay Arlington, a half brother he has not seen in years. Everyone says the two of them look exactly alike. Vincent makes a plan: put Clay in a car under his own name and blow it up, so that he will be taken for dead. The bomb goes off, Clay survives, and he loses his memory. In hospital he is told he is Vincent, and his face is rebuilt by surgery. Scott McGehee and David Siegel write and direct. Dennis Haysbert plays Clay and Michael Harris plays Vincent. The real idea is in the casting: Haysbert is black, Harris is white, and there is no physical resemblance between them. The film does not hold this as a secret; it never mentions it. Every character says the two cannot be told apart and the narrative does not argue. That gap between what the viewer sees and what the characters say is the film itself. The image is black and white and widescreen; the framing is deliberately cold and architectural. It is a story about identity but not a psychological one; it is built on identity as something handed to you from outside. Steven Soderbergh was among its producers, and it became a cult film after screening at Sundance. Who it is for: viewers who like conceptual independent film and formal games. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the acting is deliberately flat, and for a viewer who rejects the premise the film does not move.