The Face of Love

Stars Annette Bening as a widow who grieves for her dead husband (Ed Harris). We briefly see them as a happy couple vacationing in Mexico and then he dies. Flash forward 5 years and she's settled into her dull life until one day she visits a museum. And there she spies a dead ringer for her dead husband (Harris again). She's jarred from her fugue state and before she knows it she's back at the museum on a daily basis, hoping to catch a glimpse of the look-alike.

The story then takes on a journey not unlike that in VERTIGO, whereby Bening stalks and befriends Harris and tries to re-create him in the manner of her dead husband. As she descends more and more into this fantasy, she gets derailed by her grown daughter and a nosy neighbor. How can she explain this? How can they accept this? She flees to Mexico with Harris but is undone by an old photograph.

The VERTIGO connection is deliberate and even the music echoes Bernard Herrmann's. Had never heard of this film, but it was a good find.