North by Northwest

I don't get it.  As soon as this film picked up speed, I thought to myself, "Oh, it's one of these," by which I meant a thriller along the lines of The Net or The Game where the protagonist spends the entire film trying to convince everyone that she or he is not crazy.  Insofar as this film predates all those others, I suppose I should give it some credit, but I just couldn't.  I kept hoping for something inventive to happen, for for Hitchcock to toy with the audience a little more, or for things to progress in anything other than the most predictable of ways.  In the end it was a beautifully shot, but empty thriller.

Objectively, I can't justify this opinion.  I can't expect the first film of its type to subvert expectations, insofar as those expectations are the result of years of conditioning for which the film bears no blame.  No doubt to contemporary audiences North by Northwest was thrilling, innovative and original.  But film, like all literature, belongs to the audience--the viewer in this case.  I found nothing significant in the performances, direction, or writing.  The budget alone was responsible for anything notable in this film, and I end up lumping it in with Mission Impossible and other harmless summer fare.