Forget the "twist" ending--what everyone needs to keep

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2006)

in mind about US is that virtually the whole movie is merely one person's version of the events (Verbal). By the time he starts speaking about what happened, we are seeing it only through his eyes. The killings, the crimes, the legend of Keyser Soze, what each character did/thought/said. Go back, see it again, and when it becomes only Verbal's story, take it as such. Not fact, not what actually happened, but what happened according to the one (and only) person who was to benefit from the telling of it. It will change your perspective.
At the end, yes, one could say they figured it out, but the joy and brilliance of this movie is that you are so totally sucked in, and take it all on face value that you THINK you have figured it out. I am not convinced, to this day (after dozens of viewings and hours of discussion with other fans), that Verbal was Keyser Soze, or that Keyser really ever existed. Was this a story Verbal had heard and decided to maximize it? Was this a story he made up, and spread it for years as one of the most intriguing machinations in crime history? Whenever I talk to someone about this movie who has seen it only once, I can tell immediately as to whether they merely stared at the screen, or Watched the movie.
Brilliant. No other word describes this film.