Thread:LucidPigeons/@comment-366087-20160325111005/@comment-366087-20160325145622

Trust me, I understand the roles of characters.

One of my favorite suspense stories was Vanishing Act (1986), starring Mike Farrell as Harry Kenyon, a man desperately seeking his missing his newlywed wife in a ski resort town.


 * He cannot convince anyone, not even police to do more than a cursory check for her and they conclude she grew cold feet after the wedding and ran off. She'd soon surface somewhere.


 * An impostor appears claiming to be her, but when alone with him admits she is not his wife and he needs to just go along until she can collect on the wife's inheritance the next night, her birthday. Again, he cannot convince anyone of his plight. A cohort of the impostor appears to hold him at gunpoint. He breaks free, races through the snowbound town to the bank to stop the transaction and insist another search for his wife be made.


 * When the sheriff asks where should they look, Harry mentions a wicked turn outside of town and try checking the ditch. Sheriff looks at him and says, "Gotcha".


 * Turns out the wife's body had been found, and sheriff suspicious when finding out about the inheritance money being transferred to the local bank. So he set a sting. The imposter was his own wife, and the cohort the retired sheriff before him. They arrested Harry as a "black widower" for murdering his wife.

All through the movie we're pulling for Harry. Aghast at his plight. Afraid for him when the "bad guys" show up. Then in the last 5 minutes we're blindsided by the twist of the reveal that the "hero" was in reality the villain.

So I understand that "role" is not always what we're told it is.