Act 1: Ho-hum. Act 2: Wow! Act 3: Ho-hum.

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2006)

One gets the idea that Vertigo was probably one of M. Night Shyamalan's favorite films growing up. A rather ordinary film meandering along until, Bam!, the big twist that pulls you up out of your seat, puts a new spin on everything which has come before and leaves you dumbstruck by how brilliant the whole thing was. But whereas Shyamalan had the good, for lack of a better word, sense to end The Sixth Sense right after the big twist, in Vertigo the big twist is stuck in the middle somewhere and by the time the film finally wraps up the impact of that big moment has been lost. The shock, the sense of wonder and amazement, all wears off as you watch a prolonged end to the film which is rather dull and drawn-out...kind of like the whole first half of the movie.
Vertigo tells the story of San Francisco police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson, played by James Stewart. Forced to retire when afflicted with, what in his line of work, is a crippling case of vertigo, Scottie takes on one last case as a favor to an old acquaintance. He is hired to follow this man's wife, Madeleine. Played by Kim Novak, Madeleine may be a little bit crazy, appearing to be, or at least believing to be, possessed by the spirit of a long-dead woman. Scottie follows Madeleine around and after watching a number of much too long sequences which consist entirely of something along the lines of "Madeleine driving her car turns left, now Scottie following behind her turns left, now Madeleine turns right, now Scottie turns right..." you may well find yourself saying "Get on with it already!" Eventually the story (rather than just the cars the characters are driving) takes a few twists and turns but never really seems to get moving. And then comes the big twist, what is seemingly the ultimate payoff for all the rather humdrum stuff that has come before. But then it's straight back to the humdrum stuff and quite a bit more of it too. Nobody would ever seriously question the genius of Alfred Hitchock, but in this instance, it seems he just didn't have the good sense to simply let this film end. It starts out simply OK, for a fleeting moment promises to be something spectacular, but then ends up back at simply OK. Not a bad movie by any means, but you get the sense it could have been so much more.
Playing against type, more anti-hero than hero, Stewart does a pretty good job with what he has to work with. Unfortunately, for much of the film there really isn't much of anything for him to do. There's only so much an actor can do with entire scenes which require him to do nothing but stare through a car windshield. As Madeleine, Novak is somewhat cold, icy and detached but she has to be for the character she plays. How good her performance really is cannot be appreciated until the full story is revealed. It must have been a very difficult role to play and she pulled it off wonderfully. The other seemingly significant character is Scottie's old friend Midge, played by Barbara Bel Geddes. But in the end it turns out maybe she wasn't so significant after all as she simply disappears as the final act plays out, another frustrating note in what can be a really frustrating film. There's a good story here and some moments of true suspense. There's fine acting, most especially by Novak in her truly challenging role. And there's that big twist which for a moment promises to pull the whole thing together into a wonderful package. But the moment passes and what we're left with is a good movie which you get the feeling could have been truly great but fell just short of the mark.