The problem with so many of de Palma's thrillers is that they take so long in the set up. The pay offs are generally worth the wait, but you have to trudge through some tedium to get there.
"Obsession" isn't helped by a one note performance from the main actor, but at least John Lithgow is fantastic as always in bad guy mode.
The plot is about a guy who failed to save his wife and daughter in the '50s when they were kidnapped and held at ransom. He paid the kidnappers off with fake money and had the police arrest them, leading to his family's death.
In '75, the same man meets a woman who reminds him of his wife and falls in love. These scenes are boring. We know that probably nothing we see is going to be as it appears, but de Palma doesn't give us much to work with. You know not to take any of it seriously, and there's little in the way of scintillating evidence, so it's just boring waiting for the real movie to begin.
The plot twist, when it comes, is also a bit predictable. It was the ending, however, that I liked. That was genuinely touching.
"Obsession" isn't helped by a one note performance from the main actor, but at least John Lithgow is fantastic as always in bad guy mode.
The plot is about a guy who failed to save his wife and daughter in the '50s when they were kidnapped and held at ransom. He paid the kidnappers off with fake money and had the police arrest them, leading to his family's death.
In '75, the same man meets a woman who reminds him of his wife and falls in love. These scenes are boring. We know that probably nothing we see is going to be as it appears, but de Palma doesn't give us much to work with. You know not to take any of it seriously, and there's little in the way of scintillating evidence, so it's just boring waiting for the real movie to begin.
The plot twist, when it comes, is also a bit predictable. It was the ending, however, that I liked. That was genuinely touching.