Intriguing script, it pays to watch it more than once.

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2013)

It is hard to believe this movie is almost 20 years old. I first saw in in 1999, and several times since then. I have found my overall impressions changing over time. Is it a great movie? That depends entirely on your own preferences in movies. But it certainly has an interesting script and Kevin Spacey is superb as the cripple "Verbal Kint".
What we have here is a story told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator. Not that Kint himself is unreliable, but as one of the five "usual suspects", perhaps the only survivor, he tells Agent Dave Kujan ('ku-yawn') a story that he believes will satisfy him and allow Kint to go free. Not that he is overly worried because he has immunity, which also confuses Kujan.
So if you look at the story in real time, most of it takes place in a police station office where Kujan is asking Kint questions. Most of what we see as other action is a depiction of the story Kint is telling Kujan. But Kint talks about certain things (barbershop quartet in Skokie) and people (Kobayashi) that near the end we learn are things he noticed in the office. So it is reasonable to assume much, perhaps almost all, of the story Kint is telling, and we are seeing, is fabricated. Such that, when the movie ends our natural question is "How much of this was really true?"
That might upset some viewers, but it really speaks to the core of the story. It isn't about what might really have happened at the wharf that fateful night, it is about Verbal Kint and his ability to manipulate the situation in the police station office. Plus whatever he might be in his real life. But he does tell an interesting story, doesn't he?
The cast is excellent, Stephen Baldwin as Michael McManus, Gabriel Byrne as Dean Keaton, a mumbling Benicio Del Toro as Fred Fenster, Kevin Pollak as Todd Hockney and of course Kevin Spacey as Roger 'Verbal' Kint. Also Chazz Palminteri is excellent as Dave Kujan, US Customs.
An interesting role is played by Pete Postlethwaite. In the story told by Kint we see him playing Kobayashi. So that might lead one to believe that character was real, not fictional. I look at it differently, Kint has to describe the characters, his description (to Kujan) is what we see as Postlethwaite, who we later find out is in fact tied in with Kint, so it would be dangerous if he really is Kobayashi.
Good movie, see it twice, then see it once again. And figure it all out in a way that makes sense to YOU.
MAJOR SPOILER: As the interview ends, and Kint reclaims his items, notably "gold" watch and "gold" lighter, signs of wealth, and leaves, a fax of an image of Keyser Söze is being received at the police station. We see the sketch looks like Verbal Kint, Kujan realizes who he has been interviewing. At the same time we see Kint gradually losing his limp, he had been faking being cripple, he gets into a black car driven by Postlethwaite, the myth and mystery of Keyser Söze continues.