Today’s quick review: The Usual Suspects. When a shipment of gun parts is robbed, the police round up five of the usual suspects to shake down for information: McManus (Stephen Baldwin), a cocky lunatic; Fenster (Benicio del Toro), his uptight partner in crime; Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a corrupt cop turned legitimate businessman; Hockney (Kevin Pollak), an abrasive demolitions expert; and Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), a talkative cripple. The five decide to pull a job together to spite the police, but their work earns them the attention of the enigmatic crime boss Keyser Soze. Through a combination of blackmail and strongarming, he forces the crew into a suicide mission worth $91 million to whichever of them survive.
The Usual Suspects is a crime drama from director Bryan Singer that has a well-constructed plot and undercurrents of mystery. The story is told in bits and pieces by Verbal Kint in a police interrogation room after the main action has taken place. For all his hostility towards the police and his coyness about certain plot points, Kint makes for an oddly compelling narrator. Kevin Spacey does an excellent job of playing to both sides of the character: the sniveling informant looking to give the cops just enough to get off his back, and the able storyteller who spins the tale with all the color it deserves.
Watch The Usual Suspects if you are in the mood for a well-told crime drama with a couple of good surprises. The combination of an excellent plot with Spacey’s flavorful narration makes The Usual Suspects a gripping watch and one of the better entries in its genre. Be prepared to pay attention, though: the most important parts of the film are buried in names and dialogue and are easy to miss when watching casually.
8.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.0 for sterling storytelling.