Such a good film!

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2020)

So, Vertigo is widely considered as one of the greatest films ever made and probably in Hitchock's top 3. I would not disagree with the latter statement. Vertigo is an outstanding piece of filmmaking, everything from the acting, the direction, cinematography and writing is really great in almost every way. Some of my favorite movie shots of all time are in this movie. The shot where Kim Novak is at the San Francisco Bay with the bridge over her, the shot when her and Jimmy Stewart kiss for the first time, all really cool stuff. This movie also has a lot of things that I guess could be considered to be "borderline experimental" as Jay Bauman would call it, specifically referring to Jimmy Stewart's dream sequence and the opening credits. The score by Bernard Hermann is also incredible.
The mystery behind it all is really cool where in the beginning you don't really know if there's a supernatural aspect about it or not, it's really great. There's not a whole lot of new things to say about Vertigo, but I will say my honest opinion on a certain aspect of the film, which is actually one of the most important aspects, that I'm not in love with. And I know this opinion is highly controversial and this is even the second time I watch this movie to make sure that what I'm about to write is really what I think. In my opinion, the romance between Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak is really forced, it feels like it came out of nowhere. So Jimmy Stewart's character follows Kim Novak around and suddenly he becomes obsessed with her and at first it's not really clear if he's obsessed with figuring out the truth or if he's actually obsessed with her. And from the moment he rescues her from the bay, he acts really creepy towards her and for some reason, within like a day or two since they met, they "fall in love". To accept their love is so important to the overall structure of the second half of the film, that all that happens is just not as believable as I would have liked, unfortunately.
I still really like the movie, it's a classic, like I said, I mentioned all of the good aspects about it. However, it just feels to me like the film could have actually benefited from additional runtime to flesh out the relationship between Stewart and Novak a bit more. Still a classic, regardless of some guy's opinion on the internet, and I would still highly recommend it.