The Usual Suspects Review

If there’s one thing to really learn from The Usual Suspects, it’s that even the most banal and uninteresting performances serve their purpose. Lifeless iterations of characters who can’t offer anything to the viewer can sometimes be a valuable asset. The Usual Suspects fills itself to the brim with these mundane characters, with their interest spun by a man interrogated by the police, who seemingly makes up the legend of a crime lord with cutthroat, mythical intentions. A story of just how far one story can go in covering the elusive nature and whereabouts of a career criminal and bank robber, after getting him and his group in over their heads.

Told to us in an excruciatingly long flashback, Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey) recounts the interactions he had with the elusive Keyser to the police. A story winding through the build-up, double-crosses and inevitable setbacks that prevent the group from coming together to take on a large heist on a tanker. Kint’s ability to spin a tale to detectives should make for a gripping, tightly wound narrative that slips out of control with a comfortably slow-burning pace, but nothing of the sort happens in this Bryan Singer directed piece.

Instead, The Usual Suspects is just a tad boring. Outside of Spacey’s natural ability to spin a narrative that preys on the vicarious minds of the police interrogators, Singer’s direction tanks the project almost entirely. It’s certainly not a bad film, far from it, but what The Usual Suspects has in writing, it lacks in competent delivery. Gabriel Byrne is the real star of the show, his role as Dean Keaton sees him take on the leader of this ragtag group, but in a way that feels disconnected from the story Kint looks to spin. There are moments of surprising relevance, detail and intrigue dotted throughout The Usual Suspects, placed in such a way that you’ll never quite lose interest, but never fully be on-board with the direction the story is taking. Singer is absolutely to blame for that, with a dishevelled feel to the overall motion of the camera, and nary an interesting shot in sight.

The Usual Suspects lives or dies on whether or not its final twist works for you. A culmination that can feel both resourceful and rather smart, yet completely egregious and feel like a bit of a time-waster at exactly the same time, it’s an ending shrouded by the ambivalence of Singer’s direction. It’s pulled off with more wit and timing than I would’ve expected, but there’s much to desire from the ultimate spin the film looks to present us with.

Aspirations of being something much greater than it can ever possibly achieve, The Usual Suspects relies heavily on the performances of its talented cast throughout, but it never quite culminates in something satisfying or thrilling. Some scenes are a treat, but for the most part, it’s a crime thriller that never quite gets its footing, not in time to really leave an impression, anyway.