The Usual Suspects by Bryan Singer - Movie Review Example

the usual suspects “The Usual Suspects” (1995) directed by Bryan Singer is an R-rated film in the Suspense/Thriller genre. The thesis or premise put forward by screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (a former detective) is: “A person with a powerful will can bend others to his or her purpose.” The audience is only slowly let into the story that is told in two different time frames, layering itself with flashbacks, stories within stories and murky clues. It is like a game of life-and-death chess, with quick double-crosses and wild gambits. The reader must follow its demanding convolutions with total concentration or risk being lost abysmally. The opening sequence of the story paints a portrait of devastation depicting a character named Keaton on a burning ship with corpses littering the quay around. A shadowy figure of a man asks Keaton: “How are you doing, Kid?” Keaton replies: “I can’t feel my legs, Keyser”. At that, Keyser takes out a gun and two shots ring out. From the dock, a man watches from the shadows as the ship blows up in flames. This scene, the climax of the gang’s exploits, is intentionally elevated to preliminary status to grab the attention of the audience, teasing them about what may or may not be the ultimate resolution. The story next jumps back six weeks earlier as five of New York’s most notorious criminals are hauled in by the police for interrogation about the hijacking of a truck carrying gun parts in Queens, New York. We are introduced to the quintet. Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin of Threesome fame), apparently the toughest guy in the group, is a hotheaded hipster thief and a perfect maniac. Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollack, A Few Good Men), is an explosives expert with an instinct of self-preservation. Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro, Fearless) is a flashy wise guy who provides most of the humor mainly due to his nearly indecipherable accent. Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne, Little Woman), the most enigmatic of them all, is an ex-cop-turned crook known for his steely demeanor and nerves of steel; he is trying to go straight in the restaurant business. Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint (Kevin Spacey, The Ref) is a shifty, inventive conman with a shriveled arm and leg, a coward who prefers jobs that don’t require killing, and whose nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut. None of the five mismatched characters crack under police interrogation. As they sit together in jail, they trade insults amicably and compare notes about their exploits. They soon realize that they have been rounded up on some trumped-up charge and the police can pin nothing on them. When they are finally unconditionally released – the police could do nothing else but that – the five decide to take a little revenge on the NYPD for the unceremonious dignity they suffered. The film now cuts back to the exploded ship on the San Pedro pier, the present, and Giancarlo Esposito, an FBI agent (Jack Baer, Do the Right Thing). It turns out that there were two survivors, and one person known missing. As the scene cuts away, we see a charred body in the harbor. We find out that Verbal was one of the survivors from the ship, along with a man severely burned. This answers one open question from the opening sequence, viz., Verbal was the man on the dock who witnessed the explosion. The police suspect the killings on the ship revolved around a drug deal gone bad, 91 million dollars worth. They grant full immunity to Verbal as he is their key witness. Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), a U.S. Customs agent, wants to interrogate Verbal but Sgt. Geoffrey ‘Jeff” Rabin (Dan Hedaya, Blood Simple) refuses on the basis of Verbal’s total immunity. Kujan however insists on the grounds that Verbal must know something that hasn’t been revealed yet, and more specifically, that he wants to know if Keaton was involved in the ship explosion and if he is now dead. Jeff finally agrees, but gives Kujan only two hours to question Verbal and get the information he wants. The story flashes to Giancarlo Esposito, the FBI agent who is attempting to interrogate the burnt man (from the exploded ship) in hospital. The man speaks in Hungarian and mentions the name ‘Keyser Soze’ which alerts Esposito, who orders an interpreter brought in. The tale cuts back to Kujan at the station house as Verbal is brought to him for questioning. This marks the beginning of the main relationship in the film – and the primary battle of wits – between the bullying U.S. Customs agent and the seemingly slow-witted cripple; most of the further action in the story involving the five suspects occurs in flashback while Verbal is grilled. Bumming cigarettes and coffee, Verbal spills the whole yarn to Kujan. Verbals story begins from the time the five suspects are released by the police after being wrongly rounded up. Keaton, who had refused to be a part of the revenge job, meets Edie Finneran (Suzy Amis, The Ballad of Little Jo) in front of the police station. Edie is Keaton’s lawyer girlfriend. As Keaton stands with Edie, he realizes that much as he wants to, he can never go ‘straight’ simply because the cops won’t let him. Seeing that his only alternative is to play along with the other four suspects, Keaton reluctantly agrees to join them on the job, but insists that there should be no killing involved. Verbal’s yarn to Kujan continues. The target of the five suspects is the so-called ‘New York’s finest taxi service’, a scam run by corrupt cops where they transport criminals for cash. Despite Keaton’s misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch: they rob a jewel smuggler riding in a police car, then set the car on fire. The press, which was earlier tipped off by Keaton, arrive on the scene before the police. A number of policemen and other officials lose their jobs when the press exposes the nefarious taxi-service. The five men garner a loot of illegal emeralds worth several million dollars. Since their Fence happens to be do business in LA, and since none of them trusts the other, the five gangsters decide to go to LA to hock the jewels and lay low at the same time. Keaton wants to inform Edie about their departure but Verbal dissuades him against it, saying they would miss their flight. The story switches back to the hospital room where Esposito discovers, through the interpreter, that there were no drugs on the ship, and that the deal in fact involved buying people. The burnt man again claims that he had seen Keyser Soze. Esposito orders an artist to be brought in to draw a picture of Keyser Soze based on the burnt man’s description. The tale cuts back to Kujan and Verbal in the station house’s interrogation room. Kujan tells Verbal how Keaton once faked his death to avoid being arrested for murder. Kujan thinks Verbal is just a pawn being used by Keaton. This makes Verbal upset, and he finally reveals the role of Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite, In the Name of the Father), a lawyer who works for Keyser Soze. Verbal also declares that he is sure Keaton is dead. He then moves on to the next part of his story. Verbal tells how the gang goes to LA and turns over the stolen jewels to a fence named Redfoot (Peter Greene). Redfoot offers them another job. Keaton is at first reluctant but later he agrees to do it with the rest of the gang. The job, supposed to be a jewel robbery, turns out to be a drug heist and it goes horribly wrong. The gang is then visited by Kobayashi, a chillingly cruel emissary of Keyser Soze (whom they never see). Keyser Soze is an infamous, seemingly omnipotent criminal mastermind. Kobayashi tells the gang that it was Keyser Soze who arranged for the line up, and manipulated them from that time to the present because he wants to use them for a special job. Kobayashi warns the gang that Soze knows every aspect of all their lives, that all five of them had unintentionally stolen from Soze in the past, and by undertaking this special job which he has lined up for them, they have an opportunity to repay their debt to him as well as make money (91 million dollars) for themselves. If they refuse the offer, Soze can blackmail them through Redfoot and the bad jewel heist. Soze’s special job, continues Verbal, involves eliminating some Argentine mobsters. Keaton asks why he shouldn’t just kill Kobayashi. He shows him information that could be used to blackmail all the gang members – he reveals that in fact Todd Hockney did hijack the truck with gun parts mentioned at the beginning of the story. The story flashes back to FBI agent Giancarlo Esposito who finds out that the deal gone bad involved a Hungarian mob and Keyser Soze. The story switches again to the interrogation of Verbal by Kujan. Verbal says that Keyser’s reputation is so infamous that when a Hungarian gang rapes Keyser’s wife (Smadar Hanson) and kills one of his children right in front of him, he reacts by killing his own family rather than have them used against him. “The greatest trick of the devil was convincing people he didn’t exist,” continues Verbal, speaking about Keyser Soze, “to be in power you didn’t need guns or power, just the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” (The heart of the story’s thesis or premise is in this statement). Kujan pressurizes Verbal to testify against Keyser, but Verbal is scared that Keyser will have him killed. The story jumps back to the hospital, where the artist continues with the drawing of a picture of Keyser. The tale cuts back to the interrogation room. Verbal continues his narration. One of the gang members, Fred Fenster, tries to run away, but he is killed. Keaton thinks that Kobayashi is the real Keyser Soze. He captures Kobayashi only to find that he is holding Edie as hostage. Keaton realizes he’s trapped and must participate in the special job Keyser has lined up for the gang. The gang goes to scout the ship (where the Argentine mobsters are supposed to be holed up). Keaton doesn’t think the ship can be raided, but McManus thinks it can. Kujan interrupts at this point and asks Verbal why he didn’t run, instead of participating in the raid? Verbal replies that he thought Keaton might pull of the job successfully, thereby making them all rich. Verbal continues his story. The gang finally sets off to raid the ship. Todd Hockney is killed in the process. Keaton realizes Keyser’s special job is a actually a set up: there are no drugs on the ship. In one of the ship’s cabins, a terrified man fears that Keyser Soze is on the ship. He is then shot by Keyser. McManus is shot dead. A man with a gun shoots Keaton. Verbal, in the van, hears the gunshots. Verbal tells Kujan he saw Keyser, a man in a suit. We see the ship explode in flame with Verbal looking on from the shadows of the dock. This is the scene we saw at the beginning of the film. A police siren is heard. The story switches back to the interrogation room. Verbal tells Kujan that the man in the ship’s cabin was a stool pigeon who was going to expose Keyzer Soze; the Hungarian mob had come go buy the man and thus gain revenge by exposing Keyser, bringing Edie along to be the stool pigeon’s lawyer. Kujan insists Keaton is Keyser Soze and that he had Edie killed. Verbal breaks down, apparently accepting Kujan’s theory that Keyser was nothing by a myth created by Keaton – that Keyser was indeed Keaton. He tells Kujan: “My guess is you’ll never hear from him (Keyser) again.” At this point Verbal’s interrogation is finished, and he is free to leave. The story flashes to the hospital where the artist has finished the picture of Keyser Soze. The picture is faxed to the police. The tale cuts back to the interrogation room. Vessel collects his belongings and exits the police station. Jeff talks with Kujan about the system in his messy office and suddenly Kujan realizes that Verbal had fabricated all the details of his “story” from the details in the room. As Kujan starts to run out he sees the fax of the picture sent from the hospital. With a sense of dreaded shock he realizes that Verbal is Keyser Soze. Repeat of Verbal’s words: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” As Verbal walks away from the police station, his twisted body straightens and he becomes Keyser Soze (Scott B. Morgan – we see him only at this point of the story). He gets into a car driven by Kobayashi and drives away as Kujan dashes out into the street, trying desperately to find Verbal/Keyser. “The Usual Suspects” is steeped in atmosphere, and culls heavily from sources like Hitchcock, Scorsese and the Coen Brothers, using them in its own unique mould. In the tradition of Chandler, “The Usual Suspects” is a contorted and labyrinthine thriller, an accomplished synthesis of noir elements and, as such, is an entertaining entry into the genre. Reference used: The Usual Suspects (1995). Directed by Bryan Singer. Written by Christopher McQuarrie. Read More