The Usual Suspects

The problem 'twist' movies often have is, if someone spoils the twist for you, your enjoyment of the entire film is often compromised. I still haven't forgiven the guy who spoiled the twist of The Sixth Sense for me the DAY AFTER it came out in the cinemas, directly after I told him I hadn't seen it and was really looking forward to it. What an ass.

This fact is the main point I put forward in defence of why I hadn't seen The Usual Suspects up until now. I won't spoil the twist here in case any of you folk haven't seen it yet yourselves, but I seem to recall reading the twist in the tail in a film magazine many years ago. Watching TUS then was more of a chore I thought, something I'd better get through to complete my IMDB top 250 quest.

Boy was I wrong. What a terrific movie. The Usual Suspects inhabits a grubby, grimy Los Angeles straight out of an old Noir movie. In fact it shares a lot of its DNA with the old Noir films. They were often made as 'B' pictures, using a bunch of character actors from around the studio lot quickly and cheaply. The resulting film would then be shown on the undercard of a double feature, with the main event starring the biggest movie stars the studio could muster. In many cases these grubby little noir films are now better remembered than the insipid star vehicles that followed.

Like its cinematic precursors, TUS eschews movie stars for a collection of well regarded character actors, and Stephen Baldwin. That's perhaps a little unkind, but we ARE talking about the man who was Barney Rubble in The Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas, so I'll let it stand. Even Kevin Spacey couldn't be regarded as a leading man at this stage of his career, but the Oscar he won here for Best Supporting Actor started him on the path to where he is today. The lack of stars helps ground the film in its gritty cinematic world, and prevents proceedings turning into a mere action film or thriller.

The thing with the twist is that, despite knowing it, my enjoyment of the story wasn't lessened in any way. Sure it would've been great not to know, but the twist seems more like a cherry on the top of a particularly delicious sundae, as opposed to the entire raison d’être for the piece. The interrogation of Spacey's conman, Verbal Kint, by Chazz Palminteri's Customs Officer, Dave Kujan, is the heart of the piece. It gives us a coherent throughline to the whole piece, and also a reason to care. Kujan is the representative for the Audience's point of view. We know what he knows at all times, and his revelations are our own. The screenplay is absolutely terrific, and deservedly won writer Christopher McQuarrie an Oscar.

Apart from the screenplay, and some of the acting (Spacey and Palminteri especially), the rest of the building blocks are solid and workmanlike, if unspectacular. Somehow though, through a mystical cinematic alchemy, these blocks come together to form a magnificence greater than the sum of its parts. The Usual Suspects is a modern Noir classic, and I am a little ashamed it took me this long to discover it.