The Usual Suspects (1995)

Since it’s release in the mid ‘90s Bryan Singer’s film has gained a reputation as one of the best crime thrillers around. This reputation is, in my opinion, entirely justified as this is a great film blessed with an unusually intelligent script.

The film starts with the aftermath of an attempted robbery that has gone horribly wrong. A large number of people are dead and a container ship is on fire after five criminals attempted to hijack a shipment of drugs that never existed. The police are, naturally, keen to get to the bottom of the story and most of the film consists of flashbacks to the events leading up to the robbery, as told by the only survivor - a small-time swindler named Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey).

His story starts with five veteran criminals being called into a line-up in New York as the police attempt to work out who robbed a lorry carrying a shipment of weapons. The criminals (played by Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Torro, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin and Spacey) decide to team up but soon find themselves being manipulated by semi-mythical criminal mastermind Keyser Soze. Soze is a legendarily ruthless criminal who is elusive to the extent that some of the team don’t believe he even exists, he only communicates via a lawyer (Pete Postlethwaite). Soze decides they have all been inadvertently interfering with his criminal operations and to compensate they must carry out a task for him, this leads inevitably to the container ship debacle.

The reason The Usual Suspects is superior to the many other films in the genre is probably down to three things - The plot is excellent, convoluted but still believable and with a famous twist in the tale, which requires a lot of re-evaluation of what we have previously seen in the movie. The second feature is the good dialogue, which manages to be both memorable and convincing. This is complemented by the excellent acting - particularly Spacey’s and Byrne’s performances which manage to perfectly illustrate the complicated characters they play. Benicio Del Torro's slightly comic turn as the virtually incomprehensible Finster is another good performance.

Direction and soundtrack are perfectly competent, and the final scenes are particularly well shot and effective.

In short, this is an excellent film, surprising, well-made and one that stands up to many repeat viewings.

Rating : 9 / 10