Directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, The Usual Suspects is a crime drama populated with a talented cast and a plot twist that will leave audiences more confused than when the film began.
Buy The Usual Suspects Blu-rayAs the film opens, Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) is on a ship, injured. He greets a figure in the shadows, Keyser Söze, just before he is shot to death and the ship set ablaze. In the morning, 27 bodies are recovered and two survivors are found: a Hungarian mobster suffering from major burns and con artist Roger “Verbal” Kent (Kevin Spacey in an Oscar-winning performance), who narrates the story for the audience and who is interrogated by U.S. Customs agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Paliminteri).
Six weeks prior, a truckload of stolen gun parts got jacked. The authorities bring together the usual suspects for the line-up: Verbal, former corrupt cop Keaton, top-notch entry man McManus (Stephen Baldwin), his hard-to-understand partner Fester (Benicio del Toro), and explosives man Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollack).
As they sit in a jail cell together, McManus proposes a job that will allow them to get revenge on the NYPD, stealing from a jewel smuggler as he gets escorted by crooked cops. The crew then heads to Los Angeles to fence the jewels through Redfoot (Peter Greene), who presents them with another jewel heist. However, there are no jewels but heroin.
Wanting to know what happened, the criminals meet Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), a lawyer who claims to work for Keyser Söze, who is either a powerful Turkish gangster or an urban legend. Kobayashi informs them the line-up was arranged by Söze because they had stolen from him in the past. Kobayashi propose Söze will wipe the slate clean if they destroy a massive shipment of cocaine that is intended to be turned over to his Hungarian rivals. No one is interested and not everyone believes there is a Söze but change their minds when one of them is killed and their families are threatened.
McQuarrie’s screenplay has a good structure as the story moves back and forth from Kuyan’s interrogation of Verbal to seeing the events Verbal relates play out. Kuyan doesn’t believe Verbal, who says he saw Keaton killed on the ship. Kuyan, who has been after Keaton, claims that Keaton was Söze and it was all a set up to get a witness who could identify Söze. Verbal is very confused by what Kuyan tells him, but having no more to hold him, Kuyan releases Verbal.
Then a plot twist is revealed, which alters the stories of the characters and the film. Most of the events in New York and Los Angeles appear to have happened, so it’s really just a few names that have been changed. For example, the lawyer, if he is a lawyer, is not named Kobayashi. Any name could have been used if the intention was to lie, so is it really a big deal that the name was found in the office?
There’s a climatic moment when Kuyan makes a discovery and chases after Verbal. Even though he had a head start, Verbal’s twisted foot causes him to walk slow. One shot shows him escaping into a car down the street from the police station, but when the film cuts to Kuyan just outside the building looking for Verbal, the geography makes it impossible to believe he didn’t see Verbal right in front of him. It’s not like he changed clothes.
Struck from a brand new 4K Master which was color graded and approved by Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, the video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer at the original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The colors pop in strong hues. Blacks are inky, creating great shadows. The image offers a strong contrast, fine texture details, and a sharp focus that contributes to the depth. During interrogation scenes, an overpowering light from above intentionally blows out color and detail. There’s a sequence that tells a past story about Söze where the colors and details are intentionally jarring.
The audio is available on DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0. The 5.1 track delivers. The dialogue (except Fenster’s) is clear. Composer John Ottman’s score balances well in the mix with the other tracks. The effects are solid, especially the gunfire which comes sounds accurate as it comes through with good power. The track was free of signs of age or damage.
The Special Features are:
- Audio Commentary by Director Bryan Singer and Writer Christopher McQuarrie
- Audio Commentary by Editor/Composer John Ottman
- The Devil in the Details: Interview with Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel (17 min) – This new featurette starts like the interview is already in progress. Sigel talks about working on the film with a young director.
- Interview with John Ottman (18 min) – Jeff Bond, senior editor of Film Score Monthly, interviews Ottman who appears to answer someone off camera. Hespeaks to working on double duty, as he had on their previous film together.
- Pursuing the Suspects (25 min) – Singer and the cast talk about how the actors joined the project
- Doin’ Time with the Suspects (27 min) – Same interview sessions about working on the production.
- Keyser Söze (Lie or Legend?) (19 min) – Also same sessions, talk about the Keyser character, including the approach in story, performance, and direction.
- Heisting Cannes with The Usual Suspects (4 min) – Includes raw video of their attendance at the French film festival.
- Original EPK Making-of Featurette (7 min)
- Deleted Scenes with John Ottman Hosting (9 min)
- Gag Reel with Intro by Bryan Singer (7 min)
- Interview Outtakes (3 min)
- TV Spots (3 min)
- U.S. Theatrical Trailer with Intro by John Ottman (4 min)
- International Trailer (2 min)
- Six KLSC trailers
The Usual Suspects is a very good modern noir. The cast is great as a group of disparate characters thrust together, and the script moves along very well until the plot twist, which isn’t as clever as the filmmakers think, especially when the audience discovers they have been manipulated by Singer. When the story is being told from the POV of an unreliable narrator, a director providing false information is fair game, but when the POV is that of the director, it’s not fair to cheat which Singer does early on by having the camera focus on a hiding place upon the ship, suggesting someone is there when no one is. I can overlook them not nailing the ending because everything up to that point was done so well. The Blu-ray delivers a high-quality, high-definition presentation and is packed with Special Features.
