Perfect example on how a twist makes the movie

Rating: 6/10 (20 September 2013)

After the fairly unknown "Public Access", this film was the second project by director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. And man, did it deliver. It won both Oscars (including one for McQuarrie) it was nominated for and, as of this day, stands on #26 of IMDb's highest rated films of all time. There's a good chance that, after you've watched The Usual Suspects, you may feel the urge to see it again not much after to focus on details you did not concentrate on during the first viewing. This is easily one of the best examples ever of how an unexpected ending can raise the quality of a film in the viewer's mind and even carry the one who came up with it to Oscar glory. Of course, that is not to say that everything that happened in the roughly 90 minutes before the final twist is rather forgettable. It certainly is not. It's a nice buildup.
As for me, I was not too impressed with the whole story. What I did like, however, were the performances. Awards-wise, Spacey was the only standout, but almost the complete cast portrayed their characters convincingly. Spacey shines as the weak cripple whose skills in coordination and planning make him a valuable addition to the team. Pete Postlethwaite is second to none in the very few scenes he has and a truly magnetic presence. The look he gives Byrne's character out of the conference room is one of the highlights, just like the whole elevator/kidnapping scene before. And last but not least, said Gabriel Byrne delivers a great performance as an ex-cop, ex-criminal stuck between both worlds now. The way he portrays his inner conflict and his interactions with Spacey's character elevate the material a lot. When it came to the mysterious Keyser Söze, I'm not sure how many of his scenes were really so memorable because of the quality or just because of the crassness. I'm mostly referring to the flashback including his family here. Nonetheless, the character is known to stand for an invisible evil force in pop culture talk to this day, soon 20 years later, and that's surely an impressive achievement.
I recommend this film, if there's even anybody out there who still hasn't seen it. I don't think it's as good as its rating on this website suggests, but it's still a fairly entertaining 100 minutes, especially if cop/crime stories are among your genre preferences.