Film Review - The Usual Suspects (1995)

The Usual Suspects is directed by Bryan Singer and stars Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kint, a crippled man who is brought into the NYPD to tell his side of the story of a drug heist that went very wrong but there may be more to this story than at first glance.

I first saw this film back about 10 or 11 years ago primarily due to being a big fan of Singer's work on the first two X-Men films and now having seen the new film in that series Days of Future Past I felt inspired to go back and revisit it again, does it hold up after a long time between viewings?

Absolutely, this is a very impressive film to sit through though it does require some patience on behalf of the viewer but you are very handsomely rewarded when its finished, the script by Chris McQuarrie is the first of many that deserve praise here as his script is so tight that it could potentially become so convoluted and complicated that it could be difficult to follow who's who and what's going on in the wrong hands.

But Singer keeps a very firm grip on the key characters and events and it's hard to believe rewatching the film again that this was his first major movie it felt like he had the confidence of a veteran director here and it's easy to see the way he directs his cast why he was chosen to handle the X-Men series a few years later, Tom Sigel has some great cinematography here and John Ottman's editing and music score are great as well, it's a pity he won't get the chance to re-edit the first X-Men film as I would love to have seen what he might have done with it as I can't help but think it would feel like a better film.

But lastly I have to talk about the performances and not only is Spacey very convincing but Chazz Palminteri, the late Pete Posthelthwaite, Benicio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Pollack are very good here and the 5 main guys also work very well together as a group.

And so to close it, I really enjoyed rewatching the Usual Suspects and would very highly recommend it to anyone, 4 out of 5.