'The Usual Suspects' review by Captain Raptor
Given that he's been a key Hollywood player for almost twenty years, I've seen surprisingly little of Kevin Spacey's body of work. The Usual Suspects, for anybody whose cultural awareness is the size of the Greek federal reserve, is a 1995 crime film in which Spacey (in arguably his most famous and most important role) recounts the convoluted tale of his small criminal outfit during an interrogation.
The Usual Suspects really is Spacey's film. His character is incredibly quiet and perpetually in the background, so he never dominates the screen in the way of most great performances, but still his turn as the crippled, nervous conman Verbal is absolutely fantastic, from the mannerisms and movements to the delivery of dialogue and emotion, and it was certainly a well deserved Oscar. The other performances, while by no means below average, aren't particularly noteworthy, due to a combination of weakly defined, unextraordinary characters and the film's realistic and restrained style. This style serves the film well, allowing for the building of tension and it brings out the best in its intricate plot, but when all this tension boils over in the final act into mayhem and violence, it is a little tonally jarring. I do think that Gabriel Byrne was given too much screen time, partly because his character is by far the least interesting out of the gang members and his performance doesn't really elevate it any further than this, and partly because any time spent dwelling on him isn't spent with more interesting characters portrayed by fantastic character actors such as Benicio Del Toro and Kevin Pollack, who is given a great introduction and the film's funniest line and is then practically irrelevant for the remainder of the film.
The drama and complex plot are both fantastic, but not fantastic enough to prevent small segments in the middle of the film feeling somewhat dry. I'm not calling for more action or more comedy - that would be completely inconsistent with the tone and take away from some of the film's greatest attributes - but maybe some added flair to the dialogue, a tiny bit less restraint and realism in the performances, and the film might draw me in a little more with the added intensity. Really though, all these are minor complaints - I liked all the film's components and I especially liked the way they're put together, I just have personal preferences to the degrees to which each component is used.
The Usual Suspects is a brilliant film, and while I feel it might be just a little undeserving of the adoration placed on it and its seeming 'modern classic' status, a truly magnificent performance from Kevin Spacey and an intelligent and intriguing story certainly elevate it above the majority of the competition. It's definitely something I recommend, mostly on the aforementioned successes in screenwriting and performance, and just all round a very good movie.
The Usual Suspects really is Spacey's film. His character is incredibly quiet and perpetually in the background, so he never dominates the screen in the way of most great performances, but still his turn as the crippled, nervous conman Verbal is absolutely fantastic, from the mannerisms and movements to the delivery of dialogue and emotion, and it was certainly a well deserved Oscar. The other performances, while by no means below average, aren't particularly noteworthy, due to a combination of weakly defined, unextraordinary characters and the film's realistic and restrained style. This style serves the film well, allowing for the building of tension and it brings out the best in its intricate plot, but when all this tension boils over in the final act into mayhem and violence, it is a little tonally jarring. I do think that Gabriel Byrne was given too much screen time, partly because his character is by far the least interesting out of the gang members and his performance doesn't really elevate it any further than this, and partly because any time spent dwelling on him isn't spent with more interesting characters portrayed by fantastic character actors such as Benicio Del Toro and Kevin Pollack, who is given a great introduction and the film's funniest line and is then practically irrelevant for the remainder of the film.
The drama and complex plot are both fantastic, but not fantastic enough to prevent small segments in the middle of the film feeling somewhat dry. I'm not calling for more action or more comedy - that would be completely inconsistent with the tone and take away from some of the film's greatest attributes - but maybe some added flair to the dialogue, a tiny bit less restraint and realism in the performances, and the film might draw me in a little more with the added intensity. Really though, all these are minor complaints - I liked all the film's components and I especially liked the way they're put together, I just have personal preferences to the degrees to which each component is used.
The Usual Suspects is a brilliant film, and while I feel it might be just a little undeserving of the adoration placed on it and its seeming 'modern classic' status, a truly magnificent performance from Kevin Spacey and an intelligent and intriguing story certainly elevate it above the majority of the competition. It's definitely something I recommend, mostly on the aforementioned successes in screenwriting and performance, and just all round a very good movie.
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