Deservedly Loved

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2015)

If you're under thirty, where do you think you'll be at that age? If you're over thirty, where were you at that age? Maybe starting to figure out your life. Maybe finally getting a stable, well-playing job and starting to take relationships seriously. Brian Singer was directing one of the best movies of the nineties.
Not that he was the only directing prodigy of the nineties. This decade in film say two trends above all else. One, the fluid, dynamic, dark cinematic stylings which were reserved for only 'real', 'serious' movies in the past spread throughout the industry. And two: a crop of new young directors come into the spotlight en masse right as the industry needed some new blood. We may see such an outpouring again. Or we may not. But there is no denying the impact that it made on the film industry. Tarantino, Shyamalan, and many more, including Mr. Singer, started to soar here.
But even considering the fact that it was not uncommon for young directors to make great films in this age, it still surprised me to know that this is a Singer movie. Despite the fact that this movie drapes itself with mythology and fiction at every corner, it is still ostensibly a 'real' movie. I did not expect it to come from the man most synonymous with the X-Men films. Yes, said films have more 'real' elements than a standard superhero story and yes, going from grounded films early in a career to more fantastical ones later in a career is commonplace... but these films don't even stylistically look like they were directed by the same person. Singer would make a good chameleon.
I do admit, though, that such is only one of these reasons I didn't make the connection. This film is spectacularly artistic. It sweeps you vividly into this distorted world of Kevin Spacey's thoughts as he tells of a story centered around the notorious criminal mastermind, Keyser Soze. As much as I love the X-Men films, could hardly imagine Singer directed a film of this cinematic quality now, let alone when he was thirty.
McQuarrie, who wrote the script at only twenty-seven, also shows talents well beyond anything that could be reasonably expected. It is one of the best scripts of the decade and one that deserves to be gone into. So we shall.
If I had to name the one greatest feature of the script as a whole, it would be its ability to guide you while misguiding you. Unless you are Roger Ebert, you never feel that it is isn't providing enough information. But it still manages to make you jump to entirely faulty conclusions. It's like you are watching a play and you occasionally hear noise behind the stage. But every time you get ready to get up from your seat and check it out, the play draws you back in, as if it has some psychic hold on you.
Even before I watched this movie, I knew what the twist was. In case you don't know, I won't spoil it, though you really should know it whether or not you've watched this film. Just saying. Anyway, because I knew this twist was coming, I paid attention to how they set it up. I expected excellence and I got near-perfection. This film does a sterling job of making you think that you don't know what will happen, thus allowing the big reveal to strike you at an even deeper place in your heart. I was almost questioning who it was for a second, imagining that the whole world lied to me like parents do about Santa Claus.
Ahh.. fond memories.
From a technical standpoint, few films are better. The soundtrack is impressively foreboding. The characters are more than fleshed out enough to let the film work its magic. The cinematography is breathtaking. Two scenes come to mind. One is the scene where the group of criminals that comprises most of the main cast find the body of one their own down by the sea. The second is, of course, the saturated scene where Soze's backstory is 'explained' and Spacey famously says 'The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing people he didn't exist', words that are repeated at this film's climax.
But it is to some extent pointless to technically discuss this film. The whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. I consider a great movie to be that can offer something to me that no other medium can, one that deserves to be watched. This film fulfills that.