When North by Northwest hit the theaters in 1959, it provided both critical and commercial acclaim. Many critics raved over the Hitchcock classic. As David Gurney exclaimed for Common Sense Media, “the film is a true cinematic pleasure with an impressive pedigree.” For me, however, the movie failed to live up to its “100%” on Rotten Tomatoes and “5/5” on Empire‘s review . By no means did I find the movie “bad’ per se, as I did enjoy watching various scenes of the film, but the movie didn’t seem as memorable as I thought it would be. It seemed that plot, dialogue, and acting performances were all sort of jaded. In particular, Cary Grant’s performance of Roger Thornhill didn’t really bring the character alive — especially for a character who goes through various conflicts throughout the film. The movie is filled with an array of suspenseful or enigmatic situations, yet he seems to react the same way in each situation. I realize however, in making this judgement, that my view is quite biased. I’ve watched very few movies from the early and mid 20th century, and the modern movies I watch today often overflow with special cinematographic effects and vivid backgrounds. It’s entirely possible that I’m simply not used to the feel of these older movies, which could have distracted me from the movie’s stronger aspects, resulting in my mundane review. I plan to watch more of Hitchcock’s films in the future, and hope to be able to appreciate Hitchock as the “master of suspense” he’s so commonly referred to as.