A Modern Noir Myth

Rating: 10/10 (31 October 2005)

To those who have heard the hype, and are worried that your expectations will not be fulfilled....don't be. Bryan Singer takes a truly masterful Oscar-Winning script by Chris McQuarrie, an ensemble cast of actors, each of who delivers a great performance, and a haunting score by John Ottman and weaves a modern classic.
I won't reveal the plot, other than to say that the film is the story of 5 criminals, who meet in a police lineup, and go on a series of crimes, the last of which is a hijack of a boat which contains $91M of cocaine. You are introduced to Keyser Soze, a master criminal who pulls the strings of the 5 suspects, through an associate, a lawyer named Kobayashi (played with quiet menace by Pete Postlethwaite), and forces them to do the last crime. Its told in flashback, through the eyes of Roger "Verbal" Kint, who is being interrogated by DEA agent Dave Kujan, played by the Oscar winning Kevin Spacey (Best Supporting Actor for this role) and the always excellent Chazz Palminteri. As more and more information is revealed, more and more layers of deception and trickery are revealed, until the final revelation in the last few minutes of the film.
Many people rave about the surprise ending, the twist in the tale. I loved it and didn't feel at all cheated. In fact the more one thinks about the back story and connecting the dots together, the more one realises how carefully and intelligently the script was put together.
This is a modern classic, that will rank along side other great pieces of storytelling. One can watch it many times and still get something from it each time, how many films can you say that about? 10/10