…Cliff Robertson is rather stolid, but Bujold and Lithgow excel in difficult roles… no split screens, but lots of atmosphere, rushing, whirling camerawork and a wonderfully OTT Bernard Hermann soundtrack that elevates Obsession to real cinematic heights…

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 4, 2025

The truth that’s revealed by De Palma is a core of wrongness that can neither be undone, assimilated, nor confronted.

| Feb 7, 2025

One could fairly question the casting of the stiff Cliff Robertson in the lead role, but it has its merits, including its dreamy cinematography, its sense of style and a storyline designed to shock.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 14, 2024

...it is very much a film that can stand on its own legs and has plenty of its own uniqueness and beauty. It is well-worth a watch...

| May 16, 2024

Obsession is a laughably bad film. So bad, in fact, that it becomes almost interesting to speculate on why all the critical enthusiasm.

| Jun 29, 2020

Striking performances by Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold (in a two-character portrayal) help to make the Hitch-cock-like direction (especially Vertigo) both effective and rewarding.

| May 26, 2020

De Palma's direction has its splashy slickness, but the people serve as mere props for the effects.

| Jan 1, 2020

Not only is it sick, but flawed with contrivances, imitation Hitchcock gimmicks, and unanswered questions.

| Oct 29, 2019

The result is a positive, life-affirming work made by people who know how to exorcise their personal obsessions with beauty and craft.

| Oct 29, 2019

This was a... friendly reminder to never underestimate the power of Brian De Palma. His collaboration with Paul Schrader here fit like a glove, and together they crafted a breakneck thriller

| Jan 24, 2019

Obsession endures because De Palma fanatics can see the origins of the director's obsessions make their way on to the screen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 22, 2019

The fun in Obsession comes not from its plot but from its sweeping passions.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 21, 2019

Whatever shred of credibility the movie retains is dispersed by the final, dead serious directorial hocus‐pocus.

| Dec 13, 2017

A slow-motion valse, a thesis on aestheticism, a raid on the fabrication of illusions

| Oct 12, 2015

Subtlety is a not a term that can often be applied to DePalma's work, but it's this uncharacteristic restraint that helps make "Obsession" his masterpiece.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 24, 2015

Another of De Palma's fearlessly experimental whims.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 3, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 18, 2006

In spite of Vilmos Zsigmond's overrrated, overly diffuse photography, this is a surprisingly poignant mystery about love, loss and, well, obsession.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 13, 2005