Go North, Northwest or any direction to see this masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2009)

Yet another masterpiece from the master, Hitchcock. Sure, I've seen very few of his films and I'm really partial to Psycho and The Birds, but North By Northwest is no short of a classic.
Granted, this movie may seem dated now, 50 years later, and furthermore, I doubt, if remade, like Psycho, any of the events of this movie couldn't even be remotely possible today, given its time and shape of cinema in the late 1950s, this was a perfect movie. It had absolutely everything: adventure, mistaken identity, comedy, romance, spy and the everyman charm of one of the greatest actors of all time, Grant. He was absolutely perfect in his role, an instant charisma that made you believe in, root for and be like at all times. No one could do it better.
As for Eva Marie Saint, she was wonderful too. It's funny. I'm a huge Superman fan (since age 3) and during this updated viewing of the classic, I kept trying to picture her nearly 50 years older in Superman Returns as Martha Kent. I couldn't do itthey just didn't look like. Despite that, she was great in her seductive role.
Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill, a thriving ad-exec, who is mistaken for super-spy George Kaplan and gets thrust into a world he's unaccustomed to – the other side of the road. See, he's a self-proclaimed liar (advertising) and now that the shoe's on the other foot, he must adjust.
Not before long, he's accused of drunk-driving (which, as I pointed out before, most of these scenes wouldn't work today; here, the DUI's all but comical), murder, eluding the police, etc, etc. He's trying to solve the mystery, survive and romance a stranger (oooorrrr, is she???) on a train, Saint.
As in most Hitchcock classics, I'm always drawn to the intrigue, suspense, originality and acting, but I think overall – the dialogue. Here it's pristine. Sure, Grant is responsible for 90% of it, but Saint also delivers some zingers. And to this day, again, 50 years later, is still fresh, funny and moves the story in a perfect rhythm. I can't even think of many movies today that develop such a punch for such witty and sharp dialogue.
I think all should see this: young, old, people that first saw this in theatres, or to those who need to put the Wii down for a few hours. It's a fun, extremely family-friendly film that has tremendous depth, layers, adventure and allows the audience to pretend (or I would as a kid) to be someone else, this Thornhill/Kaplan character.