The first hour drags, just a little. But then it picks up and keeps gaining speed.

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2008)

Vertigo, I feel takes a bit too long to get where it's going in the first half. (Although I may feel differently when I watch it again).
But to me a lot of it, (the first half) felt kind of like 'character set up' material from a TV series, that would be put in between other scenes of other characters doing other stuff, so interest would be maintained. Whilst I didn't get bored exactly, I went from completely intrigued in the first 30 minutes to less and less until the death from the church tower.
The cinematography is brilliant, but does anyone need to point that out, it is Hitchcock after all. But I loved the way he shot San Francisco, he really truly knows how to romanticize cities by shooting them beautifully. Sure the fact that now this is more then 50 years on, so it's 'San Fran 50 years ago' adds to the romanticism, but it's still wouldn't soar to the levels it does without the cinematography.
I'm not sure if James Stewart was supposed to be a bit of a jerk, but when he pulls Novak up the stairs in the end and the argue, then they kiss. It sure wasn't a 'Happily Ever After' kiss, which would've made the ending ALL the more effective.
The end, even the way it was is just brilliant though, unexpected and dark. People went on and on about 'The Mists' ending, which I feel just make the characters in it idiots, but this was shocking.
Great, deserving of it's accliam and will be an eternal classic.
9/10
(Reviewed after first Viewing)