THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509080059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
THERE IS NOTHING usual about ``The Usual Suspects,'' a bang-up thriller for the thinking moviegoer. It will puzzle you. It will tease you. It will irritate you.
Ultimately, though, ``The Usual Suspects'' delivers on all its promises. It is the rare puzzler that pays off in the last reel.
Director Bryan Singer has assembled an awesome cast of fine actors to play five low-life criminals and the forces around them. What evolves is an acting duel that firmly etches the different characters as unique creations.
It was Claude Rains in ``Casablanca'' who casually ordered his men to ``round up the usual suspects.'' The roundup occurs here after a munitions truck is hijacked in New York City. Five known criminals are hauled in for a lineup. Although they are presumably not guilty of the theft in question, getting these five together is tantamount to a criminal summit conference. While locked in the same room, they meet and plan future robberies.
The stand-out performance is that of Kevin Spacey as Verbal, a limping squealer who oozes with a spaciness that lives up to his name. He should be a frontrunner for this year's supporting actor Oscar. He's the movie's narrator as he replies to grilling by a U.S. Customs agent played by Chazz Palminteri (Oscar nominee for ``Bullets Over Broadway'').
Verbal's nervousness makes us constantly suspicious that he might be lying but for what purpose? Since he is our prime source of information, we are forced to go along with him. Is he telling the law man only what he wants him to think, or has he broken down and decided to tell the truth? Does he even know the truth?
Then there is Gabriel Byrne as Keaton, a crook who seemingly wants to go straight (into the restaurant business) but is drawn back into the racket. He's morose and a deep thinker. Stephen Baldwin (is there no end to the Baldwin brothers?) is fine as the hot-headed killer in the bunch. Benicio Del Toro is Fenster, the handsome Latino weasler. Kevin Pollak is Hockney, seething with paranoia.
You wouldn't buy a used car from any of them, but you'll buy this plot - and how.
The resemblance to Quentin Tarrantino's ``Reservoir Dogs'' is immediately obvious, including the obscene language, but not the sadism. Singer is not as rough as Tarrantino and is willing to give us more plot than style.
A diamond heist, along the way, gets some 50 New York cops indicted and lands the gang-of-five in California for the final, fatal caper.
Along the way, Pete Postlethwhaite shows up as a henchman introduced as Mr. Kobayashi, a man who represents the heinous and much-feared Mr. Big, known as Keyser Soze.
Who is Keyser Soze?
If the movie reaches the mainstream, which it should, the question may well evolve as one of the more repeated of this movie year. He supposedly is Turkish and is out for revenge, but no one has seen him. He wants the five to pull off a job for him, and what he wants, he gets - or else.
The dialogue is filled with pop references that flash back as quickly as the scenes are prolonged. You've got to listen to every word of this screenplay and you've got to watch closely too. (There are many visual clues that are shown only once - even if they are on such an obvious object as a bulletin board).
For those who are willing to spend the time and the effort, this puzzler is truly a gem. Even if you want to relax and just watch the fine acting, it's a hot ticket. See it.
And, who is Keyser Soze, anyway? ILLUSTRATION: Five criminals played by, from left, Kevin Pollak, Stephen
Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Gabriel Byurne and Kevin Spacey meet in a
lineup in ``The Usual Suspects.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Usual Suspects''
Cast: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin
Pollack, Pete Postlethwaite, Kevin Spacey
Director: Bryan Singer
Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie
MPAA rating: R (obscene language, violence)
Mal's rating: ****
Locations: Lynnhaven 8 in Virginia Beach
by CNB