A Sad Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (27 June 2010)

It's always tough to be the odd man out, it's even harder to be just that on a film by one of your favorite filmmakers. Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is often considered one of the all-time greats for the Master of Suspense, and it really pains me to disagree with the vast majority, but that is how these things often go.
Vertigo tells the story of a retired San Francisco detective played by Jimmy Stewart who suffers from vertigo. Stewart's character is hired by an old friend to tale the friend's wife who has been exhibiting odd behavior recently, her husband believing she is channeling the spirit of a 19th century woman. The premise is well set up, and the starting paces play out superbly, but when the story starts trying to explain all of the supernatural with a Sherlock Holmes-style deduction, I find the film hard to swallow. The film becomes more far-fetched when it tries to explain realistically all of the supernatural events rather than just letting it be a ghost story. As well, the romance between the characters played by Stewart and Kim Novak, who portrays the woman Stewart is following, just develops too quickly to be believable.
As I said, it pains me to talk such as this. The film had been so built up before I finally saw it, that I guess I expected something completely different than what I got, but what I got was something that started out as one thing, and then midway through the film transformed into another that just negated all of the things I loved about the first half of the film. Want my advice, if you love Hitch, try Rear Window or North by Northwest. Way more suspense, way more mystery, and way more fun.
I give Vertigo a 4 out of 10!