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Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Director Brian De Palma gets a lot of flack for his Hitchcockian films in some corners. While folks will usually come to the defense of Dressed to Kill or Body Double, few talk about Obsession (1978), and when it is discussed, it's usually dismissed as a rip-off of Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. Being an ardent fan of Vertigo, I came to this film out of morbid curiosity, expecting a more explicit, less atmospheric rendition of the Hitchcock picture. Imagine my surprise when I ended up enjoying it a great deal. I would call it a fascinating variation on Vertigo's themes rather than a plain rip-off.Though the plot and situations are different, Obsession and Vertigo share a common core story: a middle-aged man loses the woman he loves and tries to recreate her through a lookalike, not realizing there is a deeper conspiracy at play. Like Vertigo, Obsession has an otherworldly atmosphere and a slow pace, though its muted colors and New Orleans/Roman settings differentiate it from the vivid San Francisco landscape of the earlier movie. The plot itself is deeply melodramatic, even more so than Vertigo, but the acting and music are what sell it. Cliff Robertson is fantastic as the world-weary and melancholic lead. Even better is Genevieve Bujold in the double part of the deceased wife and her Italian counterpart, weaving an intricate web of contrasting emotions and depth with her face and body language alone. Bernard Hermann provides the operatic score, all eerie organs and swooning strings, and also providing another Hitchcock link, since he did the music for Vertigo. Of course, the scores are different: Vertigo has a repetitive, ghostly soundtrack, while Obsession is a little more bombastic.I would not say that Obsession is superior to Vertigo, which has more interesting cinematography and a slightly more plausible story (only slightly), but it is a minor, overlooked gem.

This had one of the baddest plots ever and you could see it coming from miles of. At a certain point about 40 minutes in you all ready know what the conclusion will be because it all obvious points to that. There is simply no set up for anything else so the story basically unfolds without any surprises and a very predictable ending.The characters make illogical decisions and there is a real lack of chemistry between them and some explanations are ludicrous like the nine year old girl that seems to forget her former life because its convenient to the script.Movie has a lot of these examples and most of the time just drags one for that "shocking moment" at the end which it does not deliver because you all ready know that.A later movie from De Palma "raising Cain" which has some of the same subject matter is a far better movie than this both visually and plot wise so your better of watching that.This was compared to Hitchcock but while his movies will stand the test of time this one from De Palma shows he still had a lot to learn about story telling.He got it eventually but he can write this one of as a fail.

As a fan, big fan, of the majority of De Palma's work, I was looking forward to seeing this. I'd never seen it before , somehow it had slipped past me. Now, having watched it, I can only say that maybe I had a kind of 6th sense when I was younger that warned me away from it. Sadly, that sense seems to be fading. This tale of triple obsession (yes, triple) should've been a huge turkey. Difficult to believe it ever broke even, never mind made a profit, as I see it has from this website, though I reckon it must've taken a while. Visually it's interesting, the only real strong point from De Palma that I'd note, though given the Italian locations especially it's still surprising he doesn't do more with the visuals. The performances he gets are barely satisfactory and rarely convincing, not helped by a ridiculously bewigged and mustachioed John Lithgow. Cliff Robertson, a fine actor, is suitable for the romantic side of the story but never at any time convinces as someone tortured by guilt for some 15/16 years.That may not have been entirely his fault since the Paul Schrader script gives him, and everyone else, so little to work with. Full of anomalies and plot holes, while the viewer will likely have every plot twist worked out in the first 25 minutes, the script itself doesn't seem to know where it's going for the first hour with it's snail's pace development and reliance on atmospheric score to keep the audience warm.I've seen this called a psychological thriller but what thrills it has, and there aren't many and they aren't that thrilling , mostly come in the first and last ten minutes. Having sat through most of the movie waiting for something to happen, when it does, it only highlights the worst shortcomings of script and direction with unbelievable character u-turns, revelations, coincidences and just plain stupidity, such as Robertson going to the airport to book a flight , finding out there's one about to leave at that moment and just running for it without getting a ticket. The script actually makes a comic moment of it just to emphasise how stupid it is. (Even stupider than the 1959 New Orleans police as represented here also.) The film ends, more or less, with a priceless look of bewilderment on Robertson's face as, even with all the previous revelations, he finally starts to understand what has happened to him. He can't do tortured guilt, but by goodness he can do bewilderment. Funnily enough that exact look was visible on the faces of quite a few others in the cinema as the lights went up, though most likely for other reasons, that they'd sat through it all, that it had ever got made in the first place, that this stylish piece of trash could come from De Palma, etc..

I have yet to see a film that Cliff Robertson , John Lithgow and/or Genevieve Bujold do not shine. And this is yet another example. Stellar actors. From start to finish this extraordinary film takes the audience on a mesmerizing journey. I vividly remember seeing this film with a family member in the 1980's , just the ending of the film, and without a doubt this would have to be one of the most moving scenes I've ever encountered. I dare anyone to watch this film and not be moved at the finale. Many modern movies have over-the-top special effects and minimal acting , where the audience is left deflated since they weren't able to connect with the characters. Here we have minimal special effects and stellar acting all around , as well as high quality musical composer Bernard Herrman.A lot of Brian da Palma's other films are overly laden with violence and gratuitous scenes, and yet somehow this film, Obsession, is an example of how you can make a highly engaging film that mesmerizes an audience WITHOUT any explicit material. I highly recommend this film as de Palma's best.