One of the best crime dramas EVER

Rating: 10/10 (27 May 2004)

A poll in Entertainment Weekly magazine a couple of years ago listed, among other things, the Top 10 movies to watch over and over. The Usual Suspects came in 2nd, right behind The Shawshank Redemption. And that says it all... this is a movie that can be watched over and over again. Even if you've seen the ending dozens of times, you like to pretend that you're watching it for the first time. It's just that good.
The first time I ever saw this movie was on cable in the early part of the evening. I was so floored by the way the movie ended, I went out and rented it, and watched it again that very night. As a veteran film-goer, I can think of no other movie that has affected me like this.
I watch this film now and I wonder how this story would have been adapted to film had it been made in the days of B/W. Veteran crime drama actors like Bogart or Cagney could have slipped into these roles like a glove. It's not a stretch to imagine the type of dialogue or the score that was prevalent in crime dramas of the time; this story is a great mystery for any era.
The acting in this film is absolutely first-rate. Spacey earns his well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of Verbal Kint, a character so obviously deeper than the two-dimensional crippled crook that he PRETENDS to be. Gabriel Byrne's Dean Keaton, corrupt, ruthless and possessing a conscience that you need a microscope to see, still manages to SOMEHOW generate sympathy. Steven Baldwin? Who'd've thought that anyone associated with Bio-Dome had such a performance in him? The list goes on... Kevin Pollack, Benicio Del Toro, Chazz Palmintieri, and my personal favorite, Pete Postlethwaite as the enigmatic Kobayashi. (Side note: I love that not one person noticed or even commented on the fact that a British lawyer had a Japanese name, but that of course tied into the ending!)
The atmosphere of the movie is tense and taut, like a great crime drama should be. The camera work is top-notch, and the score is absolutely perfect. The script is superb, rife with memorable lines and even more memorable characters. (I would have awarded McQuarrie the Oscar just for coming up with the name Keyser Soze; I mean, is that a great name for an omnipresent bad guy or what??)
This film is the exception to many rules. Usually, a film dome mostly in flashbacks is lame and predictable... not this one. Films where the bad guy wins, which are rare, usually leave the viewer with a sour taste in their mouth... not this one. (Of course, when 95% of the characters in a movie are bad guys or, at the very least, people of questionable character, it's not hard to root for them! "Payback" is another example.)
I would recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, even if they already know how the movie ends. If you've only seen it once, see it again. This is a movie that gets better with multiple viewings, not worse. I've lost count of how many times I've seen it, and it's taken it's place at the #1 spot of my favorite drama of all time.