Everybody's dizzy...

Rating: 4/10 (12 November 1999)

Some films are able to twist time to their advantage. Few contemporary critics cared for Vertigo when it debuted (though some will lie otherwise). Today, critics have enshrined it as Hitchcock's finest. A shame.
Vertigo's first hour is hypnotic. Jimmy Stewart, a retired cop who suffers from the title ailment, is persuaded by a friend to follow his wife, suicidal Kim Novak, for her own protection. One especially excellent scene involves Stewart examining Novak as she walks through a garden and studies a picture. The mystery seeps through the film's atmosphere, and the scene is quietly beautiful in a way Hitchcock seldom is.
Eventually, Novak does kill herself, and so does the film. Stewart soon meets a woman closely resembling Novak and grows obsessed with her. There is a plot twist, but it is so terribly transparent I doubt anyone is surprised. Unfortunately, what little suspense lurks in the second half hinges on this twist, negating Hitchcock's supreme talent. Characters begin acting with little or no believable motivation, and Stewart descends into frenzied rants and raves that are pretty funny to watch. The surprise ending is foolishly revealed before the ending, and when the final scene finally arrives, the melodrama is hilarious. The film nosedives after a promising start and wrecks itself.
Critics praise the second half of the film as self-revelation on the part of Hitchcock. Maybe, but most people do not watch films because they care about the director. They watch films because they like films, and Hitchcock's films are more interesting than Hitchcock himself. Naturally, Hitchcock scholars are interested in Hitchcock, and this interest accounts for Vertigo's inflated reputation. The sad truth is Vertigo is a flawed failure.
I'm wagering time will straighten itself out. In twenty years, true Hitchcock classics such as North by Northwest will replace Vertigo at the top of critics' list When it does, I'll be the one collecting bets and wearing an obnoxiously smug grin.