THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action / Crime / Drama

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Gabriel Byrne / Stephen Baldwin / Kevin Spacey

Plot

When a ship explosion leaves more than a dozen dead, one of two survivors tells a U.S. customs agent an elaborate tale involving con artists, suicide missions, hijackings, murders, double-crosses, and an all-powerful gangster named Keyser Soze.

What I Liked

For years I'd listened to people say to me, "You've never seen 'The Usual Suspects'?!  You have to see it!  It's definitely you're kind of movie."  They were right.  Absolutely one of the best noir films of recent decades, “The Usual Suspects” feeds us most of the standard noir elements (tough-talking detectives, tougher-talking low-lifes, overambitious criminal plots, and tragic consequences) but mixes them up into a thrilling puzzle of deceptions created by the mysterious Soze.  Trying to put the pieces together before the cops do proves to be the real joy in watching the movie.

Of course each character and his or her  shady background is a piece of that puzzle and the characters are given just the right amount of development to be interesting while still leaving enough unknown about them so as to keep the viewer guessing at how they all fit together.

When we're not busy trying to figure it all out, we are treated to some stylish and thrilling action sequences.  Through camera movement and editing, director Bryan Singer gives these scenes a real sense of immediacy that lends heart-racing tension to the moment, helping to make the film satisfying as both an engaging mystery and a shoot-'em'-up gangster movie.

What I Didn't Like

 Plot-wise, there are several questions left unanswered, though this very likely could have been intentional on the part of the screenwriters and filmmakers.  Other than that, I can't find much to complain about here.

Most Memorable Scene:

*spoiler alert*

Although I had already figured out the twist by the time the big revelation came about, watching Chazz Palminteri's Agent Cujan come to the realization as the now famous line, “The great trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist” plays through his mind will continue to satisfy with each viewing.  Here all the pieces of the puzzle, imagined and real, come together and the fractured storytelling finally pays off so that the viewer can pull back from it all and see the big picture just as Cujan does the same.

My Rating: 4 out of 5