"I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze"

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2016)

Wait a minute... five criminals in one lineup? There's something wrong here, right? Right... In "The Usual Suspects," not only every line but every gesture, every facial expression and every camera cut counts. Even if you distrust the story being told, you can't exactly pin down everything that's wrong with it. The plot unfolds through the tale extracted from Kint, one of two survivors of a massacre and subsequent explosion on a boat docked in San Pedro Harbor, by U.S. Customs agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri). And at the same time as Kint is spinning his yarn, in a nearby hospital the other survivor (badly injured and fresh out of a coma) helps a police sketch artist draw a picture of the mastermind behind the scheme - "the devil," Keyser Söze. You can watch this movie countless times, and you will still discover new subtleties every single time. Not only will you find that it still makes sense after the story line has been unraveled at the end (which therefore is a plot twist, not a non-sequitur). You'll also discover nuance upon nuance in Kevin Spacey's incredible performance. You'll see that tiny apologetic grin on Todd Hockney's face as attorney Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) lists a weapons truck heist - the very act which brought them together in the initial lineup, and which they have all come to believe to have been a trumped-up charge - as Hockney's latest sin against Keyser Söze, now forming part of the debt to be repaid by participating in the suicide mission in San Pedro Harbor. And at some point you'll also have figured out all of Fenster's lines (not being a native English speaker, I am relieved to find that I wasn't the only one struggling with them at first)... although the mumbling is of course part of his character, and is as excellently delivered as every other aspect of Benicio del Toro's acting, his lines are so funny and to the point you almost wish he'd speak more clearly so you wouldn't miss half his punch lines the first time around.
This masterpiece of cinema deservedly won the best screenplay Oscar and best supporting actor Oscar for the wonderful Kevin Spacey in 1995. The film is a modern day classic with all the elements of great film making coming together. A fantastic script combined with brilliant direction and a cast that seemed to be thoroughly enjoying itself, this is 1940's film noir at its very best, brought thoroughly up to date for the 1990's, combining clever little references to the past with very modern settings at that time. Action, suspense, plotting, double crossing - the whole kit and kaboodle.
Overall rating: 10 out of 10.