"Suspicious Faces" is a neo-noir genre detective, included in the list of 10 best Hollywood detectives and 250 best films in the history of cinema. Positive reviews of the film "Suspicious Persons" in 1995 put him on a par with such films as "Mad Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction". What is this picture about and is it worth watching? Actors, reviews, awards and the plot of the film "Suspicious Persons" - later in this article.
Plot
The structure of the picture is a retrospective of events, shown from the words of one of the main characters and necessary to restore the incident. At the beginning of the film, the viewer sees the crime itself - a Kaiser kills a man named Keaton, and then sets the ship on fire. Then it is reported that at the pier, where the burning ship exploded, found 27 corpses. Only two people managed to survive: an illegal immigrant from Hungary who received severe burns and was in the hospital, and Roger Kint, a swindler with cerebral palsy, nicknamed Chatterbox. It is on behalf of Chatterbox that the viewer sees what is happening on the screen, since he agreed to contribute to the investigation in return for release.
Roger begins his story with a story about how he was invited to the police station for identification as an extras. Besides him, there were four more people, all with a criminal record. The five of them were left to spend the night in the same cell. As it becomes known later, it was rigged.
During the night, a freshly baked gang ripened a plan to rob a police car conducting dirty business. Dean Keaton, a former policeman convicted of official crimes, became the informal leader. The case is successful, and a series of subsequent proposals leads the gang to cooperate with a Turkish gangster named Kaiser Soze, whom no one has ever seen. He hires five to explode the ship, which holds 90 kg of cocaine.
The shootout begins on the ship, the ending of which is already known to the interrogation prosecutor - Agent Quine. After listening to the story of Chatterbox, he comes to the conclusion that it is Keaton who is Kaiser, and that everything that happened was rigged by him in order to stage his death. In his opinion, Roger was left alive so that he subsequently confirmed the legend of Keaton's death.
Quine releases Chatterbox and intends to report his guesses to his superiors, but he suddenly notices that all the names and places that appear in Roger's story are already indicated on the blackboard with criminals and evidence or in the names of the manufacturers of things in the room. At the same time, a photobot of Kaiser's appearance comes to a police request, leaving no doubt that he is a Chatterbox, and his whole story is nothing more than a fiction. In the last frames, the viewer sees how the retiring Roger Quint refuses a paralyzed gait, gets into the car and drives off.
Creature
The film Suspicious Faces was shot in just 35 days, and its total budget was five and a half million dollars. The director was Brian Singer, who worked on the script of the famous Hollywood author Christopher McQuarrie.
The first of all the actors involved in the project came Kevin Spacey. He was impressed by the director’s previous film and expressed a desire to take part in his next work. In order to confuse the audience, Singer did not give the actors a full script, convincing each member of the gang that he was Kaiser. The real story was known only to Kevin Spacey. Thanks to this trick, it’s not possible until the very end to guess who the secret leader is, since all the actors played the character.
Actors
Positive feedback on the film "Suspicious Faces" was promoted not only by the magnificent detective story, but also by the wonderful cast, which included both famous and novice actors. The main role of Roger Quint - aka Chatterbox and Kaiser Soze - was played by Kevin Spacey, who got into the picture at his own request. The leader of the gang and the first suspect in the identity of Soze - Dean Keaton - was played by Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, often appearing in detectives and thrillers. The role of agent Dave Quine was played by an American actor of Italian origin Chazz Palminteri.
The role of one of the gang members, a foreigner Fred Fenster with an incomprehensible speech, was played by a novice actor Benicio del Toro. His candidacy was proposed by Kevin Spacey. The grumpy and cruel Michael McManus was played by Stephen Baldwin, the youngest of four actor brothers Alec, Daniel and William. The fifth gang member, Todd Hockney, was played by renowned actor Kevin Pollack in the 1990s.
Awards and nominations
Positive reviews of "Suspicious Persons" from film academies and advice from film critics brought the film a large number of nominations and awards. So, Kevin Spacey won three awards for Best Actor or Actor in a Supporting Role: from the Oscars, the National Council of Film Critics of the USA and the Seattle Film Festival. He was also nominated in these categories for the Golden Globe and an award from the Screen Actors Guild of the United States. Director Brian Singer won the main award for directing at the Seattle Film Festival and the silver prize at the Tokyo Film Festival. In addition, he was nominated for a Saturn Award in this category, and could also receive BAFTA and Cesar awards for best film. Screenwriter Christopher Macquarie has won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, and Edgar Allan Poe Award. Also awarded were composer John Ottman ("BAFTA", "Saturn") and actor Benicio del Toro ("Independent Spirit").
Rating
Worldwide professional reviews of Suspicious Persons from 1995 to the present, which are mostly approving, have made the film a 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On IMDb, the rating of the picture is 7.8 out of 10. The data from the Kinopoisk website report 82.9% of positive reviews from Russian viewers.
Criticism
Immediately after the release of the film on the screens, reviews on "Suspicious Faces" spoke of the potential "cult" of the picture. After a while, the film is still called one of the highest quality and most advanced thrillers of the decade:
Uncompromisingly stylish and twisting with each new scene, the film invited the audience to share the confusion [of the characters], try to recognize where there is an illusion, and where is reality, as if attending a magician’s performance.
One of the few negative reviews was a review of "Suspicious Persons" from an American critic Roger Ebert. Entangled in the plot lines, he included the picture in the list of his most unloved.
The opinion of the audience
The box office in the United States exceeded $ 23 million, amounting to almost four times the budget picture. This eloquently speaks of the success of the film in world box office. And the opinion of Russian viewers can be easily found by reviews of "Suspicious Persons" on the network. On the site "Kinopoisk" of 99 reviews - 66 positive, 10 negative and 14 neutral. Positive, in general, agree on the unpredictability, uniqueness and unique atmosphere of the picture. None of those who left reviews could have imagined that the film would end just like that. Negative reviews mostly express dissatisfaction with the intricacy of the picture, and some left a bad review without even watching the film to the end.
Films Similar to Suspicious Faces
Those who liked the picture of Brian Singer should pay attention to other tapes in the genres of detective thriller and neo-noir. For example, you can include Quentin Tarantino's "Crazy Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," David Fincher's "The Seven" and "The Game" movies, as well as "The Lucky Number of the Slevin" by Paul McGuigan, "Primal Fear" by Gregory Hoblit, " The scramble of "Michael Mann," Los Angeles Secrets "by Curtis Hanson, the Miller Crossroads by the Cohen brothers and the Brothers Lie Detector.