Gets Better With Age [*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*]

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2000)

The first time I saw this film was 4 years ago, when it first came out on video. I saw it because of the unbelievable praise it was given by its audience, about half of its film critics, and its two Academy Awards. After I finished the film I was both shocked and confused as to what had happened. It seemed to me everything Verbal had said to Dave Kujan was false, or some of it false, and the only confirmed truthful events or persons we actually see during the course of the film is the setup (or lineup), Verbal's testimony to the DEA, the death of the suspects except Verbal, Verbal's lies to Kujan, Kobayashi's existence, and of course the fact Keyser Soze is Verbal Kint (or could Kobayashi be Soze?)... This all took hours to figure out, but then I thought, the movie is rubbish..it just cheats at the end.
Months later The Usual Suspects was screened on TV. I gathered the will to watch it again, and I watched it with the knowledge of what happens at the end. I learned SO much more. So many little details (like the history of Keyser Soze and Dean Keaton, and their questionable past relationship or rivalry). Also, I appreciated the movie for what it is before the twist at the end: a clever, mysterious noir with great music, editing, script, characters and acting. But I still didn't fully understand the ending and its link to the flashbacks. If everything which Verbal said was shown in the flashbacks, why did Verbal admit to killing the man with the case who Keaton couldn't kill? Wouldn't that make Verbal a confessed murderer (he got set free after his testimony)? This is probably the only mysterious flaw(?) of the film.
After the second viewing, I watch the film every two or three months when I have the time. EACH time I learn something refreshingly new. This must be one of the most carefully constructed films of alltime. When you think about it the film was giving you as many clues as to who Keyser Soze really is as as many tricks to making you think Keaton is Soze: 1) the order of the gifts to the five guys from Kobayashi, and the way the camera never shows what was in Verbal's package 2) the tone of voice and the evil look Verbal gives in the lineup scene 3) the misleading, obviously tricky way the film always depicts Verbal as the last guy who could be Soze (the weasel/cripple character, the constant jokes ("gimp, pretzel man") made towards Verbal. 4) Verbal's crippled hand/leg sometimes changes from left to right throughout the film. 5) "Soz" in Turkish means word. Word and verbal a connection anyone??
If you haven't seen the film, you shouldn't be reading this.. But if you have and couldn't understand it, read my post and see it again and again!