Suture is a beautiful film... great B&W 2.35:1 (Super-35) photography and keen editing. The performances are excellent. Everything is great except for one thing: It relies on such a suspension of disbelief that becomes distracting throughout the film. Don't get me wrong. Dennis Haysbert has the best performance in the film. But I feel that it was a bad idea to make the whole plot hinge on everyone mistaking a black man for a white man. I understand the reason why it was done, but there's no motivation for this.
This gimmick ends up being as distracting as Bela Lugosi's stand-in for Plan 9 From Outer Space. There's no reason why the two would be confused with each other, obviously. However, it's never indicated WHY the use of two actors with opposite races would be confused with each other. I wouldn't have a problem with this if they didn't constantly show us how different they are. Vincent mockingly says they look the same (meaning they don't). The plastic surgeon watches a tape and views photographs of Vincent repeatedly. We basically have to let it pass that no one can recognize just basic features of the two (Vincent's gaunt face and receeded hairline). This gimmick was used perfectly in Luis Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire - two actresses play the same character for no reason. But that's a surrealist comedy. It almost feels like the directors put the gimmick in Suture just for the intent of being distracting. That's nice, but it's like keeping a hand over half of the lens for a whole reel to show blockage. It's nice, but it gets old.
The use of the making the actors completely oblivious to something obvious to the audience can only work in something like a comedy or at least a film that doesn't take itself seriously. This is why Weekend at Bernie's can work, because it's so silly. Suture doesn't seem to be a movie meant to be taken as a jokey film. Maybe it's a parody of art-house films and we just can't accept that.
This film basically shows that the switch of a driver's license is enough to switch identities. I really think that without this misfired gimmick, it would have been a great film. Or at least making it a comedy would have worked.
This gimmick ends up being as distracting as Bela Lugosi's stand-in for Plan 9 From Outer Space. There's no reason why the two would be confused with each other, obviously. However, it's never indicated WHY the use of two actors with opposite races would be confused with each other. I wouldn't have a problem with this if they didn't constantly show us how different they are. Vincent mockingly says they look the same (meaning they don't). The plastic surgeon watches a tape and views photographs of Vincent repeatedly. We basically have to let it pass that no one can recognize just basic features of the two (Vincent's gaunt face and receeded hairline). This gimmick was used perfectly in Luis Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire - two actresses play the same character for no reason. But that's a surrealist comedy. It almost feels like the directors put the gimmick in Suture just for the intent of being distracting. That's nice, but it's like keeping a hand over half of the lens for a whole reel to show blockage. It's nice, but it gets old.
The use of the making the actors completely oblivious to something obvious to the audience can only work in something like a comedy or at least a film that doesn't take itself seriously. This is why Weekend at Bernie's can work, because it's so silly. Suture doesn't seem to be a movie meant to be taken as a jokey film. Maybe it's a parody of art-house films and we just can't accept that.
This film basically shows that the switch of a driver's license is enough to switch identities. I really think that without this misfired gimmick, it would have been a great film. Or at least making it a comedy would have worked.