You can go with ensemble cast, police procedural, and story that aims to mislead in describing the film The Usual Suspects (1995). There was definitely a slow burn to the unfolding drama of the larger story being told, so stick with me in learning if this film is worth your time.
The Usual Suspects begins with a lineup of the five criminals suspected of a crime whose details we in the audience only learn through the slow burn of the dialogue and storytelling of the interrogation and flashes of exposition interspersed throughout the movie. Kevin Spacey as the wounded, bemused Verbal in central to much of this unfurling of the tale through the course of the movie.
Stephen Baldwin as McManus and Gabriel Byrne as Keaton join Verbal in the initial lineup of criminal suspects for the crime under investigation by Dave Kujan, as portrayed by Chazz Palminteri, and his boss Jeff Rabin. Dan Hedaya portrays Rabin, which is to say Kujan’s boss. Both are seemingly a step behind the convoluted tale spun by Verbal through much of the tale. Pete Postlewaite as Kobayashi plays an intriguing role throughout the crime unfolding in The Usual Suspects, though whose to say why he wasn’t in the main lineup to start the film.
The slow burn of the revelation of details through the film is meant to keep pretty much everyone off the mark. The certain play is that the suspects are aiming to keep the police detective off his mark. The interrogation reveals details where even the criminals themselves seem to have been kept in the dark about the details of the investigated crime, which becomes more detailed and interesting as the movie moves along.
The mysterious story of a cocaine shipment through Keyser Soze, with the last name pronounced so-zay, becomes the larger narrative we learn about as Kujan continues to press Verbal for details. The interrogation and the telling of Verbal’s story, with a surprise twist at the end that completes the story, is where the value of The Usual Suspects, if there is any, rests.
Without wishing to place too fine a point on the way The Usual Suspects was told, I agree with the take offered by Roger Ebert. In mentioning director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, Ebert mentioned that in “unraveling their carefully knit sleeve of fiction [that they could have focused on] just telling us a story about their characters – those that are real, in any event. I prefer to be amazed by motivation, not manipulation.” The full surprise is there for your viewing pleasure. I rate The Usual Suspects at 3.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Saturday, September 19, 2020
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