Who is Keyser Soze?

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2010)

For my friends birthday,I have decided to pick him up a big mix of "classic" films,that I really hope he will enjoy.With his birthday coming up later this week,I started to wonder if their were any films that I had left out in the mix...Suddenly,I remembered that a few years ago,my dads friend telling me about a great-sounding crime film with "an amazing twist ending"With thankfully,having enough time to rent the film to see if it was worth picking up for my friend,Even before the film had finished,I was online ordering a DVD of this amazing film for him. Note:Due to the two time periods that the films storyline takes place in,I am splitting the films plot into two parts.
The plot: The past- Five petty New York criminals,who are each regularly chosen to stand in police line-ups decide to form a gang to get there own back on the cops.The first thing the gang does,is expose some very corrupt cops,who are accepting bribes from some very powerful criminals to be "taxis" for them,so all the criminals have police protection where ever they go.With their first plan having gone very successfully, (and also very richly,due to them stealing some cash from one of the criminals)one of the gang (Mcmanus) tells the others that they should take the stolen cash to LA,where a jewel thief that he is friends with lives.When they get to LA,the thief tricks them into robbing a "jewel dealer",who they discover,was actually a Heroin dealer. All of the gang do everything they can,to get the thief to reveal why he lied to them about the robbery.The thief says that he was not the one that wanted the Heroin stolen.Instead,he says the he was ordered to set up the robbery by a lawyer called Kobayashi.When they meet Kobayashi,he sends shivers down all their spines,when he tell them that he works for Keyser Soze.(Soze is a man known for being an almost mythical criminal,due to no one having seen his face for years and for a very infamous,disturbing story where,With his family being held at gunpoint by thugs,Keyser kills his family and the thugs,and then goes and every family member or friend that the thugs ever had.)They are then all told that,all of there so-called petty crimes actually damaged some of Keyser Sozes underground empire.This has,understandably,made Soze furious.Surprisingly,Kobayashi tell them that unless they steal millions of dollars worth of Cocaine from a cargo ship in an LA harbour,that Keyser Soze will kill every one that they care about.With only those two options,they all decide to go on Sozes suicide mission...The Present: Police officer Dave Kujan and agent Jack Baer are each separately investigating a massacre on a ship in an LA harbour,which has only left two survivors (though Kujan suspects that one of the gang members that boarded the ship,may have fled the scene early and could still be alive.) With one of the survivors (gang member Verbal Kint) being given a slap on the wrist fine for having a gun without a licenses,he has been given immunity by the police,since he has told them that he was one of the gang members who boarded the ship.Due to Dave Kujan only being allowed to keep Verbal in custody for two hours,Kujan realises that he has to do what ever he can to find out in those two hours what really happened on the ship with Verbal Kint and the rest of the gang... Meanwhile,unbeknown to Kujan,agent Jack Baer is at a local hospital with the only other survivor-a Hungarian man,who has suffered 60% burns all over his body.To the agents amazement,the man stars talking and,though he can hardly make out any of the words that the man is saying,the man suddenly yells out that he has "Seen the face of the devil."Baer quickly rushes to find a sketch artist,due to the man being the only known surviving person to have seen the face of Keyser Soze... View on the film:
The star of the film,that kept me griped from the opening credits,to the now-famous ending was the screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie.Whilst most writers would have either given very big sign posts to let the viewer know which way the film is probably going to go or,have built a very weak-rushed story so they could quickly get to the big twist ending.McQuarrie cleverly makes sure that the film is not held down by the heavy-weight ending.This is done by Christopher spending a good amount of the film building up the story bit-by-bit,and by looking at most of the Usual Suspects characters backgrounds and current (troubled) situations (although I do feel that Benicio Del Toro is slightly under used in the film.)When looking at the film on a second viewing,I was extremely impressed by McQuarrire dropping tiny hints of the ending threw out the whole film.Which,on first viewing seem to be some very minor moments until you get to the end,when you realise that the ending has been scaring you right in the face the whole time! While most people praise the great performance by Gabriel Byrine and the shining A-List making performance by Kevin Spacey are,understandably praised.I feel that the excellent performance by Chazz Pacminteri as Dave Kujan is sadly over-looked.Pacminteri works as a great counter- point to Spaceys great Verbal Kint,with their fantastic interrogation scenes being some of the most gripping moments in the film. Something that I now find surprisingly easy to see,is that director Bryan Singer would go on to make the first two X-Men films.Singer shows how he is able to give all of the actors great moments in the film.Even though it was only his second film,it is very clear to see that at this point, Singer knew how to make an exceptional film with interesting characters and a very well-written story Final view on the film: A very intelligently written screenplay,with great tension building and a truly jaw-dropping ending,matched by amazing performances from a stunning ensemble and some very smart and gripping directing.