treatise on romantic love and obsession

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 1999)

This masterpiece is an oft misunderstood treatise on the nature of romantic love and the ways in which we choose the people we wish to have relationships with. Stewart's character's obsession with a woman who does not really exist is a powerful look at the way we posture to attract and remake or mold others into what we want them to be. The fact that Madeline is married does not deter Scotty, the possibility that she is either haunted or out of her mind slows him not a step. Even when she dies, he continues to search for her, pursuing the love and even accepting a man-made ( by himself) imitation to bestow his obsession upon. It is only when he realizes that another man has concocted his paramour, that he has fallen for somone else's ideal woman, that Scotty gives up. "It's no good Madeline, we can't bring it back." No, but we can keep watching it over and over again, as obsessed with the film as is Scotty with the woman.