Good film

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2012)

The Usual Suspects follows the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint. Verbal is one of two survivors of a drug deal gone wrong at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells the interrogator, Kujan, a drawn-out story about events that led him and the four other "usual suspects" to the port the night the drug deal went wrong, leading to a fire and several casualties. At the beginning the five suspects are brought into questioning over a truck hijacking. The suspects are Michael McManus played by Stephen Baldwin, Dean Keaton played by Gabriel Byrne, Fred Fenster played by Benicio Del Toro, Todd Hockney played by Kevin Pollak, and Roger "Verbal" Kint played by Kevin Spacey.
The theme of The Usual Suspects is that pride and arrogance lead to manipulation and betrayal. At the beginning of the film, none of the suspects will admit to anything that happened with the hijacking. We immediately see that these five men are arrogant but at the same time loyal, not throwing any of the other men under the bus so to speak. During the movie Kint manipulates the other "usual suspects" by playing puppet master without them even knowing it.
This theme keeps true throughout the film as Verbal is being interrogated by Kujan. As the story becomes more complex we see Verbal becoming more arrogant and manipulative of Kujan. The character of Verbal becomes more and more interesting as the movie goes on. Kevin Spacey was the perfect actor to play the role of Verbal as Spacey does well in providing mystery.
In respect to theme, this movie is similar to The Interview. The 1998 movie The Interview is also revolved around a man's drawn-out interrogation for crimes he may or may not have committed.
One technique used in The Usual Suspects is the motif of an unreliable narrator. Verbal often skirts around the questions being asked during his interrogation. Another technique used is flashbacks. As Verbal is being interrogated throughout this film Verbal narrates through the flashbacks exactly what happened the night of the boat explosion. The fact that Verbal was an unreliable narrator, thus the flashback scenes being unreliable as well, ties back to the theme of pride and arrogance leading to betrayal and manipulation.
The pride and arrogance all of the "usual suspects" portrayed throughout this film shows how easy it is to manipulate and betray people. This film was one a lot of people can relate to in general because we have all been manipulated/ have manipulated others at some point in our lives.