Obsession

Brian De Palma’s (mostly unsuccessful) riff on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Obsession follows wealthy businessman Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) as he loses his wife (Genevieve Bujold) and daughter in a violent accident – with the movie subsequently picking up 15 years later and detailing Michael’s risque relationship with an Italian woman (Bujold’s Sandra) who looks exactly like his late wife. Obsession kicks off with an admittedly engrossing stretch revolving around the aforementioned accident and its buildup, with De Palma’s expectedly grandiose stylistic choices ensuring that the movie, at the outset, possesses a great deal of potential. Alas, De Palma’s decision to infuse the movie’s midsection with as deliberate a pace as one could envision ensures that one’s interest begins to dwindle steadily – with the uneventful nature of Paul Schrader’s screenplay effectively compounding the progressively less-than-captivating atmosphere. It’s clear, too, that the underwhelming vibe is compounded (and perpetuated) by Robertson’s stiff, emotionless work as the one-dimensional protagonist, with the actor’s standoffish turn essentially preventing the viewer from sympathizing with Michael’s situation on an ongoing basis. (John Lithgow, on the other hand, delivers a scenery-chewing performance that elevates the proceedings on an all-too-sporadic basis.) And although the film closes with an appreciatively (and impressively) over-the-top final stretch – ie De Palma finally indulges in the broad filmmaking for which he’s famous – Obsession is, in the end, a disappointingly weak entry within De Palma’s otherwise strong body of work in the thriller genre.

** out of ****