Obsession (1976 Film) - Reception

Reception

Critical reaction to Obsession was mixed. Roger Ebert wrote, "Brian De Palma's Obsession is an overwrought melodrama, and that's what I like best about it...I don't just like movies like this; I relish them. Sometimes overwrought excess can be its own reward. If Obsession had been even a little more subtle, had made even a little more sense on some boring logical plane, it wouldn't have worked at all." Variety's review described it as "an excellent romantic and non-violent suspense drama...Paul Schrader's script...is a complex but comprehensible mix of treachery, torment and selfishness..." In Time, Richard Schickel called the film, "...exquisite entertainment...The film also throws into high melodramatic relief certain recognizable human truths: the shock of sudden loss, the panic of the effort to recoup, the mourning and guilt that blind the protagonist to a multitude of suspicious signs as he seeks expiation and a chance to relive his life. In a sense, the movie offers viewers the opportunity to do the same thing—by going back to a more romantic era of the cinema and the simple, touching pleasures denied the audience by the current antiromantic spirit of the movies." Other reviewers routinely praised the stylish cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond, and Bernard Herrmann's beautiful, highly romantic score was one of the most acclaimed in his distinguished career, earning him a posthumous Academy Award nomination (the composer died in December 1975). The National Board of Review named Obsession one of the Top Ten Films of 1976.

But several critics complained that the film was all too clearly a mere homage to Vertigo, without being original or interesting enough in itself as a thriller. Pauline Kael, normally one of De Palma's greatest admirers, dismissed the film as "...no more than an exercise in style, with the camera whirling around nothingness..." Vincent Canby wrote, "To be blunt, Obsession is no Vertigo, Hitchcock's witty, sardonic study of obsession that did transcend its material, which wasn't all that bad to start with. The Schrader screenplay...is most effective when it's most romantic, and transparent when it attempts to be mysterious...The plot...is such that you'll probably have figured out the mystery very early."

Decades later, Obsession's reputation improved considerably. The Rotten Tomatoes website lists the film as having a 79% favorability rating, based on the critiques of a sampling of 19 reviewers.

The film was an unexpected financial success. Columbia held on to the movie for almost a year before dumping it into theaters in late August, traditionally the "dog days" of movie attendance. Obsession had managed to obtain enough positive critical notices to spark interest, and it earned the distributor over $4 million in domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals.