A little strange...

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2004)

I must say I don't share the same high praise as the other reviews here, and I thought a little balance was needed. Not that this is a negative review of Vertigo (its not really a review as such, just a little musing), but its just that I don't think it quite deserves its title as one of the Top 100 films of all time. While I admit I have only seen the film once, that one viewing is more than enough for this type of movie.
Firstly, I found the storyline a bit over-dramatised and at times confusing. While the basic plot is fairly simple, the various plot twists and turn can often one wondering where the film leaves off. For example, when the main character John 'Scotty' Ferguson (played by Stewart) meets 'Judy' who was playing 'Madelline' the whole time. The viewer is not told whether Stewart knows Judy is Madelline or not as if would seem pretty obvious they are the same person. I also don't get the end scene, how is 're-enacting' the scene supposed to cure Detective Ferguson's vertigo? But that's probably my lack of understand.
In addition, the characters were often inconsistent. Why does Judy suddenly become so trusting of Det.Ferguson? In the first half of the film, there's a sense of unreality of the whole story that's quite hard to pick. As if the entire movie is a whole dream. Stewart's character of a hard-nosed detective is played out well, although he quickly becomes obsessed and paranoid later in the film. Indeed, his character is multi-layer and in many parts of the film we see a darker side to his nature. The character of 'Madeline/Judy' obvious differs from the first part preceding the 'real' Madelines death, and the second scene.
In terms of technique, the movie was perhaps typical of detective type movies of the period which used music scores to add drama and suspense. I thought the score was a bit much at times, and could have just been toned down a bit. What I mean is that what was actually happening on screen was not sufficiently suspenseful to require such a soundtrack.
Anyway, I'll give it 7/10 stars. Its a fascinating movie that everyone should watch, I just found the plot a little messy