THE USUAL SUSPECTS

This movie is a triumph of style and atmosphere. The substance is only marginally important.

It begins...

...with the aftermath of a bloody battle on board a ship, and in the shipyard, at night.

...with an inferno that consumes this scene.

...with a very odd closeup of a pile of odds and ends on the dock, the lights from the huge fire throwing shadows back and forth as this mound of rope and cargo surveys the devastation.

...and with an assemblage. A very unlikely group of suspects is gathered in what--to them-- appears to be an annoying shakedown. It is actually an interview of sorts. Unbeknownst to them or the police, these specific five have been gathered for a mission which they are particularly suited to accomplish. It is an assignment from the invisible Keyser Söze.

This character--Keyser Söze--effectively dominates the entire film without ever revealing anything more than his silhouette in a rare flashback. He is a criminal mastermind, sort of a don to the entire criminal underworld. Outside of the criminal population, his name is known only to a few Federal investigators who are tracking mere mentions of him.

And all of this emerges slowly as a finely constructed backdrop for the main plot. It is the main story in which our five anti-heroes are rushing forward to a date with terrorists on the ship we saw in the first scene.

In a movie like this, good performances are absolutely vital--there isn't much besides the way the script is read. And good they are. Even Stephen Baldwin, he of BIODOME, is nothing short of intense as the commando-type, sharp-shooting professional criminal Stephen McManus. Which they all are--every one of the main five are among the very best at what they do. What they do is organize and carry out major heists, though only a few have ever worked together before.

The movie is structured ingeniously, with Chaz Palminteri as Inspector Dave Kujan conducting an interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint (played by Kevin Spacey who won a deserved Oscar for his role). The story that comes out of this session is woven around two major figures. On one side, moving all the elements to his own ends, is the mysterious Keyser Söze, on the other is Dean Keaton, a man vainly but desperately trying to turn his back on his criminal past. The latter is played by Gabriel Byrne in a remarkable bull's-eye of a performance. There are others, and they are all good. Pete Postlethwaite is an icily evil attorney named Kobayashi that works for Mr. Söze. But it is the struggle between the unseen manipulator and the reluctant leader of this group--Dean Keaton--that moves the story.

We know their fates from the beginning. This is one of those wonderful shows where the telling of the tale holds the magic. Watching the whole story unfold toward an end that we already have had a glimpse of, and discovering the nature of the details along the way, that is what makes this such a thoroughly enjoyable show. It is directed with a spooky focus by Bryan Singer, who has created a masterpiece. He is helped out in this by John Ottman, whose score is both haunting and intense. And an Oscar-nominated [winning?] script by Christopher McQuarrie doesn't hurt, either. It shouldn't be omitted that on the Internet Movie Database, at http://us.imdb.com, visitors to the site have ranked this movie third out of hundreds.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but this is a darn good movie. One to watch with friends. Quiet friends--so you can catch all of the wonderful details.