Brian dePalma really accomplished quite a feat by paying homage to Hitchcock with a strong variation on VERTIGO's theme--a man who loses the woman he loves sees her reincarnated in another woman and then loses her too.

He takes this premise and does some fancy camera-work that swirls around the lovers with an intensity only matched by the whirling colors of Bernard Herrmann's magical score. He sets up the tale by having a convincing kidnapping take place in which his wife and daughter are taken by the criminals and has him mourning their loss until he encounters another woman in Italy, years later, who strongly resembles his presumably dead wife.

The rest of the plot must remain undisclosed for "spoiler" purposes, but I'm sure there are those who will at least have a suspicion as to the real purpose of all the foregoing events.

CLIFF ROBERTSON has the difficult chore of appearing downtrodden and depressed most of the time, so GENEVIEVE BUJOLD has the task of brightening up the tale with her unconventional good looks and upbeat manner. JOHN LITHGOW makes his screen debut as Robertson's close friend and business acquaintance.

If it's a stylish dePalma movie you're in the mood for, this one will fill the bill nicely. And that Bernard Herrmann score alone makes watching the movie completely worthwhile. It's dazzling.

Brian De Palma once again shows his obsession for Alfred Hitchcock. He brings in some overwrought music from Bernard Herrmann.

This is another stylish but flawed film from De Palma with a dreamlike romantic mystery to cover up a controversial strand of the storyline.

Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) is a real estate developer in New Orleans whose wife Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter Amy are kidnapped. From the advice of the police, he does not pay the ransom. A botched rescue attempt leads to his wife and daughter's death.

Michael is left devastated. 16 years later, he goes on a business trip to Italy with his business partner Robert LaSalle (John Lithgow.) To his astonishment he meets Sandra Portinari, a woman who looks like his late wife at the same church he originally met her in Italy.

Michael becomes obsessed with Sandra and asks her to marry him. When he brings her to New Orleans, his friends and colleagues are worry about Michael. Fate plays a cruel twist on him as Sandra disappears one morning.

This is a moody, uneven and a slow moving thriller. De Palma is yet to master suspense and the script he co-wrote with Paul Schrader is choppy.

Bujold is very good in a difficult role. Robertson looks like a television actor who struck it lucky with an Oscar. He is just too bland. Lithgow on the other hand is too fruity who signals his nefarious hand in any twist in the plot.

OBSESSION, Brian de Palma's answer to Hitchcock's VERTIGO, is the most disappointing film I've seen from the director yet. Despite his steadfast direction and some not-bad performances from the central actors, this is a huge letdown of a film, purely due to the film-flam nature of the storyline. The truth is that it just doesn't hold together under close scrutiny. The whole plot hinges on a conspiracy of sorts which is so ridiculous, so unbelievable, that it could only appear in a movie.

The story opens with ageing Hollywood heartthrob Cliff Robertson losing his wife and daughter during a kidnapping attempt. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the story then cuts to twenty years later and loses any of the focus or interest it had previously generated. It becomes a cheesy, '70s-era romance that goes nowhere, taking an age to build to that aforementioned ridiculous climax that asks the audience to swallow a wholly unbelievable plot. It's impossible.

Robertson is passable as the lead actor, but he never lights up the screen in the way a Stewart, Grant or Peck would have done. He's definitely second-rate material. Genevieve Bujold, as the subject of his affection, is better, but not as good as Margot Kidder in de Palma's previous SISTERS. John Lithgow is a disappointment in the acting stakes, especially given his performance in the much better BLOW OUT. All in all, this is the most disappointing de Palma film I've watched yet, at least up until his work in the mid-'90s.