What An Astonishing Film!

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2010)

Where do you start with a film like 'The Usual Suspects'? A film of such quality is hard to capture in words. The story follows 5 classic criminals who were placed in the same police line up, and it wasn't a coincidence. The story then jumps from the past to the present in a series of events involving murder, betrayal and police investigation.
It is a movie that redefined the genre of Mystery. A short way into the film a mysterious criminal mastermind by the name of 'Kaiser Sose' is introduced to the audience. Throughout the rest of the film I could hear myself thinking, "Who is Kaiser Sose?" To know the answer to this question, you must see the film. This leads me to discuss the film production, hats off to Bryan Singer for creating such a masterpiece. The casting of the 5 criminals is nothing short of perfect, as are their performances. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benecio Del Toro, Stephen McManus and Kevin Pollak all give top notch performances as criminals. Kevin Spacey is dazzling as a cripple from New York. Space went on to win an Oscar for the role. Gabriel Byrne is top notch as the smooth ex police officer with sophisticated criminal intelligence. Benecio Del Toro is one of the stars of the film as Fred Fenster. Although Del Toro has few scenes in the movie he creates a character that the audience loves and are amused by. Stephen Baldwin's performance as the real tough guy of the 5 criminals is so astonishing, it is a wonder that roles for him since have been few and far between. Chazz Palminteri and Pete Postlethwaite also pitch in with solid performances.
The fact that there is no real lead role in the film adds to the mystery as, it leaves the audience suspecting nearly everybody to be Kaiser Sose. The mysterious and creepy piano solo theme, by John Ottman, further adds to the phenomenal final result.
The fact this the film wasn't a big seller at the movies is a credit to it, as evidently the quality of the movie was spread by word of mouth not big advertising bucks. This was a similar case to the greatest film of all time, The Shawshank Redemption.
Bryan Singer has created a masterpiece which redefined the meaning of the mystery Genre. It is a film that is bound to live on for decades to come.