A maddeningly meticulous and crafty film!

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2008)

My top 10 films of the 90s EASILY include this film, THE USUAL SUSPECTS. I remember seeing it shortly after it first came out in 1995 and being enthralled by the story, dialogue, and characters, then came the punchline at the end! No matter, I still think of it as a fascinating piece of film-making. Because of the trick ending, it is debatable as to what is real or not in the film. If you watch it objectively, it is just a damn entertaining, complex, well-plotted film noir piece with an exciting climax. If you take the subjective route, which you pretty much have to because of the ending, then what you've got is perhaps the most puzzling film ever made, one that even with multiple repeated viewings will make you second (and third and fourth, etc.) guess yourself. Regardless, THE USUAL SUSPECTS is one spectacular film!
THE USUAL SUSPECTS starts off with the film's supposed protagonist, Dean Keaton (terrifically played by Gabriel Byrne), being assassinated by a mysterious figure (unseen to the viewer) named 'Keyser'. I think it's safe to say that this opening scene is objectively told. It really happened. Then Keyser burns the ship that Keaton and a bunch of other men (who we find out about later) are on. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the cops and FBI question the sole survivor of this massacre, Verbal Kint (played by Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Kevin Spacey). Verbal is the only one who can tell what happened. He is our link to the story of THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
Leading the investigation is US Customs Agent Dave Kujon (effectively played by Chazz Palmentieri). Kujon grills Kint relentlessly in order to piece together all the events that led up to the massacre. Kint begins with the events weeks before when Kujon and his fellow agents had arrested Keaton and the other 'usual' suspects Kint, Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fred Fenster (Benicio del Toro), and Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak). These 5 men were suspected of a hijacking and were brought in for questioning.
As Kint continues and the film progresses, we find that the 5 criminals were manipulated into the situation by Keyser Soze, a Hungarian uber-gangster/drug dealer who they all think is really a myth until his #1 lackey Kobyashi (played with cold efficiency by Pete Posthlewaite) pays them a visits after their release from jail and tells them that indeed Soze is behind all this. Soze wants them to to do job for him by killing his Hungarian competitors, who are making a huge drug deal with some Argentinians on a ship docked in LA. This leads us to the climax and back to the events that started the film.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS, whatever one's feelings about the surprise at the end, is one brilliant example of modern day film noir. Nobody is innocent, yet every major character is multi-dimensional and draws you into the story. There is quite a bit of action and violence, but it is tight, well-placed, and quite convincing. The beauty of the film is that you can watch it at least two different ways: objectively to be entertained and subjectively to try to figure out what the heck is really going on! The acting is uniformly superb, the Oscar-winning screenplay crackles, and the film is NEVER dull. One of the best of the 90s!