The Usual Suspects
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Bryan Singer |
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| Distributor | MGM (Video & DVD) |
| Honors | |
| Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie’s twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie’s now-famous central mystery (namely, “Who is Keyser Söze?”), others aren’t so easily impressed by a movie that’s too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun… | |
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie’s twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie’s now-famous central mystery (namely, “Who is Keyser Söze?”), others aren’t so easily impressed by a movie that’s too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser Söze. Spacey’s in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey’s character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. —Jeff Shannon
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Dark, tortuous, labyrinthine, a tour de force of audience misdirection, The Usual Suspects is one of the key thrillers—no make that key films—of the 90s. A foreign cargo ship explodes in a California harbour. Six weeks earlier, five ill-assorted criminals find themselves side-by-side on a police line-up. Linking the two events (or so it seems) is master criminal Keyser Soze. Legendary and unseen, his very name enough to strike terror. As police and the customs officals investigate the explosion, a complex series of flashbacks spirals out from the airless room where Customs-agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) interrogates the gang’s sole survivor, the aptly named Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey in a career-defining performance).
The writing is close-textured and sinewy—an ingenious heist scam enough in itself to fuel most regular thrillers, is thrown away in the first 15 minutes—and a matchless ensemble cast give it all they’ve got. The film plays intricate games with perception and belief: the more we’re shown and told, the less we can rely on. Who is Keyzer Soze? Does he exist at all? Even after we’ve seen the final twist, questions still remain. This is a film to see, enjoy and argue over time and again. —Philip Kemp
Barnes and Noble
Few movie thrillers grip their audiences in the way this gritty but seductive caper flick does. Christopher McQuarrie’s brilliantly structured, Academy Award-winning screenplay opens with a mysterious dock fire, the unexpected result of a botched hijacking that leaves the crime scene littered with corpses. Flashbacks reveal the participants as career criminals Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio Del Toro, and the conflagration’s sole survivor, Kevin Spacey. Interrogated by police officer Chazz Palminteri, Spacey spins a bizarre tale of treachery and murder, over which hovers the specter of a mysterious master criminal named Keyser Soze. Bryan Singer’s direction consists mainly of misdirection: Like a magician, he diverts attention from clues that might enable viewers to peer through veils of deception shrouding the truth. He’s ably assisted by the powerhouse cast, the standout of which is clearly Spacey. His Oscar-winning portrayal of crippled stoolie, Roger “Verbal” Kint, catapulted the character actor to stardom. Distinguished by its deliciously clever script, razor-sharp direction, and superb, nuanced performances, The Usual Suspects is a modern classic. Ed Hulse
