The Usual Suspects

Starting off the New Year with a bang. The Usual Suspects was my first choice to get stuck into. Or rather, it was my Grandpa's choice and he fell asleep about 20 minutes in. Don't let the lethargy of an 86 year old man decieve you, however, I massively enjoyed Bryan Singer's neo-noir crime thriller.

The dingily lit story begins in the aftermath of a disastrous heist, with the events that lead us to this moment being narrated by Roger 'Verbal' Kint (played by Kevin Spacey), one of two survivors of the massacre. The story centres around a ragtag group of crooks who are thrown in jail together for a crime they did not commit and their resulting string of criminal escapades. An unfaultable cast, I thought, with my highlights being Benicio Del Toro, playing a suave Fred Fenster with a fantastically incomprehensible accent. Other MVPs include Gabriel Byrne, who nailed the steely, reluctant participant with a haunting past, and Chazz Palminteri shone as the ambitious, unrelenting cop. The gritty, drab cinematography, paired with a constant threat of violence, drums up a sense of anxiety that is doubled by the supreme ensemble performance, which gets you onside from the jump with the infamous 'line-up scene'.

Like many, I thought I had it sussed out relatively early on, but I was fooled. After witnessing what I can now appreciate as a truly inspired twist, I am dissapointed: a true film snob would have figured that one out. After Seven, how could I ever doubt Spacey's credentials to play a great big baddie? But I did doubt it. And now it seems I have a long way to go until I achieve this illustrious title. 8/10

Yours sincerely,

The (wannabe) Film Snob