Quite ingenious crime film that lets you in and then doesn't give you so much as a sniff unless you can spot all the visual clues and then some more.

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2008)

Only a film as cryptic as The Usual Suspects could keep you coming back for more and more. A film that is so involved and so smart and engaging in its delivery that it drops several clues to its ending while simultaneously not entirely making them obvious for first time viewers. In fact the series of clues; ideas and the overall ending is so famous, it's been referenced and spoofed in so many other pieces of text that these days it would be almost impossible to watch without knowing what everything revolves around. The mere fact the ending and whole idea has featured in these other texts only confirms The Usual Suspects' cult status and is really just an appreciation or 'acceptance' that it is truly a fantastic film.
The film is an all over the place (in the nicest possible way), crime drenched neo-noir which cuts back and forth from police station to detective trying to get to the bottom of a supposed drug deal gone wrong on one equilibrium; but also to the flashbacks which are the making of the drug deal on another equilibrium. The film sees visual references, audio references, what characters do as well as general dialogue drop hints as to what is coming and what the truth really is  hell; in one instance, where a certain character looks is an important clue. But The Usual Suspects is more than a series of tricks and gimmicks masquerading under a decent cast and a well shot, well lit crime saga. It is a journey into a world of the detective; it is a race against time and it is a non-linear crime saga revolving around organised crime, criminals and drug lords.
I have to admit that I didn't fully understand the film first time I saw it, but with the added aid of research and DVD extras, The Usual Suspects quickly became one of my favourite films in terms of atmosphere, narrative and the general pacing of the story being unfolded. The film also carries a certain air of manipulation and ambiguity in its presentation, forcing us to think one thing; forcing us to recognise with seemingly the most unnecessary things imaginable: the way a certain character speaks nearer the beginning; the direction a certain character looks and what they're looking at as well as what certain characters are telling other characters and how they're reacting to it despite the fact we've already seen it.
If it all sounds complicated then that's because it is, but that's the beauty of the film when it comes to multiple viewings. Everything is set up in a fast and urgent manner after a more sedate and much more calmer opening in which the aftermath of a shoot out on a boat introduces the prologue to the main strand of the film: an interrogation (or a 'friendly chat' according to the interrogating police man) between Verbal Kint (Spacey) and the officer, David Kujan (Palminteri). The brilliance in the delivery of Kint's story to Kujan lies in its parallel placing with the scenes revolving around the rounding up of the criminals which culminates in that famous line up shot; the developing of their friendship/hatred; the jobs that they do for a mysterious figure known as Redfoot (Greene) and the situation they all find themselves in once crime king Keyser Söze (can't put actor's name in brackets) catches up with them.
If we look at how the criminals consisting of McManus (Baldwin); Keaton (Byrne); Fenster (del Toro); Hockney (Pollak) and Kint are rounded up in the first place, we can see that out of all the arrests Keaton's is given the most dramatic and most coveted. When he is arrested, he is in an expensive restaurant indulging in a rich conversation as opposed to the others whom are crudely rounded up on street corners and in garages. From here Keaton is made to look, perhaps not the most criminal, but certainly the most intelligent of the band but the rest of them are petty criminals or in Kint's case, crippled. This immediately places a higher opinion on Keaton in our minds and already, the film is attempting to brainwash us with its 'who's who'. The extensive dialogue later on constantly keeping Keaton in the dark as to who he could really be helps maintain this doubt as does his scrachy background and his failure to get a business empire off the ground.
Then there is the manipulation of the supporting characters. I mentioned Redfoot being mysterious, something the film establishes with eerie music as his car rolls up to the gang. They meet amongst some odd looking Japanese mise-en-scene definitely un-associated with the location they're currently in: Los Angles, further adding to the bizarre and somewhat surreal nature of both the scene and the film. But there are several incidences where what you think was right, indeed wasn't and as the film develops things become increasingly dramatic culminating in a scene involving a notice board that still chills me even after so many viewings. Quite simply; The Usual Suspects is a smart and engaging film, the likes of which can be revisited time and time again.