Obsession with mystery

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2000)

The basic plot: An ex-police officer with fear of heights is assigned by a friend of his to keep an eye on his seemingly off-the-edge of sanity wife , but he soon becomes enamored with Madeliene and when she commits suicide ,he finds another girl with a passing resemblance to her who he has clothed, dressed , and done ultra-specifically like Madeliene, but then he learns her secret......
The praise: Incredibly dreamy and cool, actually an allegory of the human love of the difficult and mysterious, the strange and the icy(Madeliene), over the plain and familiar( Midge, his ex-fiancee ), and the natural urge to explore and obsess with the strange,scary and beautiful in the human sex urges. Oh,yeah and James Stewart and Kim Novak are truly great in their respective roles. Jimmy Stewart is near-perfect as the mild-mannered soul with kernels of obsession both sexual and for a single mysterious woman , with a phobic fear of heights, known as Scotty. Kim Novak is perhaps perfect, drawing on wells of truly deep emotion and currents of beauty untold. Oh yeah, there is a great swooning Bernard Herrman score. It is the most stylish movie , elegantly photographed and designed with a truly elegant beauty that is both modern,old, and religious.There also is great suspense along the way , thrills,chills and mood. Perfect Hitchcock. Must-see.
The flaws: The ending is too uncharacteristic and pat of the rest of the film.