perfect

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2001)

I saw this movie first like nine years ago, and I was so deeply impressed that I gave it a *9* when I joined the Movie Database - an unusually high rating because thrillers are not my favorite genre. Furthermore, when I saw it for the second time - afew days ago - I remembered every detail; what a higher compliment can you make to a movie? Although you might say that the topic is - nowadays - a bit 'old-fashioned' - and object that, during the last fifteen minutes, there are some superfluous explanations, you have to admit that every little finger-movement in the film is well-thought, that the moment when Mia Farrow has the first look to her 'baby' is TERRIFIC, that Cassavete's silent metamorphosis during the film is absolutely convincing, that all the acting in its blend of everyday behavior and cruelty is simply perfect - and so is the whole movie. At the second view, it might not make you shiver as at the first time. But you won't find an 'error' nor any tastelessness. (The good taste is something of the time, I guess; despite the differences, Hitchcock has it, too.)