Mysteries don't get any better.

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2012)

You're introduced to five criminals walking into a dingy police station. One look at them and you know that these are the guys who always get mixed up in something funny. They're called to read out something from a piece of paper which they do, ending their lines with a cuss and allowing themselves a hearty snicker. The scene continues and you see each one of them getting interrogated personally by the cops. All of them claim their innocence whilst the cops threaten them and once or twice, answer back, not giving a damn what the cops might do to them. 15 minutes into this marvel of a film and it had me laughing hard and loud. That's the beauty of 'The Usual Suspects".
The film follows the story of Roger 'Verbal' Kint (Kevin Spacey), a small-time con man and a cripple, who narrates his story to the cops about what happened after the lineup, beginning from a small hit-and-run robbery and ending in a waterfront explosion that killed 27 men. His story is about how the five men: Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), a professional thief; his partner Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), the smart guy; the explosives expert Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollack), the corrupt cop Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) and Kint, are blackmailed into stopping a drug trade by a legendary and seemingly omnipresent gangster Keyser Soze. As Kint's story progresses, it becomes more and more complex and finally gives rise to a big question: Who is Keyser Soze?
'The Usual Suspects' is unlike anything I've ever seen: fast, cold, dark, unnerving, funny, nasty and spellbinding. It's crude cinema at its finest (how often d'you get to see something like that?). What makes it even better is how director Bryan Singer's got a way to build nail-biting suspense. He never lets you know anything you absolutely don't need to know and gets you the facts on a need-to-know basis. Of course, Singer's not the only hero of this film. The screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, is one of the best ever written, pure and simple. In the first scene itself, he introduces his characters and you understand them, not wanting to know anything more about them and he doesn't let on much, making you guess what each of them goes through throughout the film. One question whose answer has evaded me for years: How on earth did he imagine all this? McQuarrie's been equipped with terrific imagination and you see that through his writing.
This is the kind of film that could've faltered if it wasn't for the splendid performances by the cast. Spacey is sensational in the lead role, wearing a slightly bemused expression throughout the film, he gets you laughing when he wants to make you laugh. Del Toro is equally wonderful as the smart guy whose accent is hard to decode. The editing by John Ottman, who is also responsible for the haunting score, is what makes the inspiring climax hit you like a 1000-ton train at full speed.
'The Usual Suspects' is an underrated classic. It's a superbly crafted suspense-thriller which has elements of a dark comedy. Four years after I first watched it, it still holds the pride of being the only film which I had seen a second time as soon as I had finished the first viewing. If it's on my favorite-films list, I would put it near the top.