A mountain of praise for a more than worthy film

Rating: 10/10 (29 March 2004)

"The Usual Suspects" is the prototype for crime thrillers everywhere and does it perfectly. The opening scene immediately pulls the viewer into a world that is somehow not the real one and grabs his or her attention completely--something that will not let up throughout the rest of the film. We get clues to the shocker ending (which I consider the best surprise ending in Hollywood history), something of Dean Keaton's (Gabriel Byrne) character--we can even tell he's something of a Byronic hero, something of the idea of Kaiser Soze--a perfect example of how the body cam imply the character without any dialogue (I know he does have some, but the sense of the character that we get is before that), and preparation for the film's climax all in one small scene. It's no wonder Christopher McQuarrie wrote the entire script to reach this scene, as it is perfect.
McQuarrie's script is an absolute wonder to behold. The characters are all wonderfully vibrant, alive, and separate from one another; the storyline is full of wonderful twists and turns everywhere; the dialogue is wonderful (including a grand total of one pop culture reference); and the ending is unbelievably great. I don't think there's an uninteresting character, unnecessary scene, or out-of-place line (except for the one pop culture reference) in the entire film, and that must be credited to director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie.
The acting is absolutely superb. Stephen Baldwin seems out-of-place in his somewhat annoying performance of Michael McManus. Kevin Spacey is of course brilliant (and how in the world he's a supporting role, I don't know) and Gabriel Byrne every bit as good in multi-layered performances--having to portray multiple emotions in single shots in order to make the plot work* (I'm avoiding spoilers, so you'll have to watch it to see what I mean). Kevin Pollack was a surprise scene-stealer as Todd Hockney, who is very much the opposite of Pollack's other major role, Lt. Sam Weinberg in "A Few Good Men." Chazz Palminteri and Pete Postlethwaite gave wonderful smaller performances as well.
*SPOILER EXAMPLE: Look at Spacey when we first see him in Sgt. Rabin's office--is he just looking around bored or is he calculatingly looking for things to use in concocting his later story? SPOILER ENDED
Bryan Singer's direction is wonderfully unobtrusive. Rather than load the film up with Oliver Stone-like odd editing, he just gives us some strange angles (especially in the interrogation by Kujan) to show us some small details and otherwise keeps it rather simple. Singer knows that his actors and screenplay are going to put the film across without him doing much and so him doing much will just make him get in the way.
In all, a wonderful masterwork. I cannot recommend it enough. Just be warned that there is a TON of swearing, but it's a near-perfect film.