HITCHCOCK

HITCHCOCK
GRADE: A
Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

       If I had to choose a single greatest film director of all time, I'd probably have to go with Alfred Hitchock. Yes, even as fanatically enthusiastic as I am about the films of Steven Spielberg. While D.W. Griffith invented the narrative film as we know it today, and Orson Welles revolutionized the artform with Citizan Kane, over the decades of his career and countless excellent films, Hitch did more to develope the possibilities of the art form than anyone else, in my opinion. And Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho is one of the two or three best books about fimmaking I've ever read, giving a facinating and detailed account of the creation of one Hitchcock's greatest films.

          So, does the new film Hitchcock, based on the aforementioned book and the genius who inspired it, live up it's lofty subjects? No, not really. In order to make the film more palatable to a mass audience and less specifically for film geeks, Hitchcock glosses over most of the detail on the making of Psycho and focuses instead on a fictionalized look at the complex relationship between Hitchcock and his wife and most trusted collaborater, Alma Reville. Director Sacha Gervasi is talented, but he's  bound to suffer by comparison when directing a film about a master. Forunately, the film is still very good, and entertaining enough for me to give it an enthusiastic recommendation.

        As the story begins, Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) has just released one of his biggest successes, North By Northwest. But he yearns to try something a little different, and he finds just the right material in Robert Bloch's novel Psycho, a lurid story of, as one excedutive puts it "a queer dressing up in his mother's dresses and killing people.". While every Hollywood studio has rejected the book, Hitch sees the potential to reinvent himself, and puts everything on the line to fund it himself. Meanwhile,  Alma (Helen Mirren) is feeling more than a little unappreciated, and is spending more and more time working on a writing project with author Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston). This personal plot takes up the bulk of the film, and that might be a real problem if Hopkins and especially Mirren weren't giving such great performances, explores the nuances of the complicated relationship between to brilliant artists. Hopkins captures the voice and manerisms of Hitchcock very well, even if his makeup looks a little silly at times, and is given a great deal of delightful dialogue which he delivers expertly. And Mirren's subtle, elegant characterization is heartbreaking and beautiful.

           While we don't get enough behind-the-scenes Psycho stuff, what we do get is a lot of fun, especially Hitch's meetings with an uptight censor (Kurtwood Smith). Scarlett Johanson may bear only a passing resemblance to Janet Leigh, but in scenes where she is reenacting moments from Psycho she captures the star's facial expressions so perfectly it's astounding. And James D'Arcy's Anthony Perkins is downright eerie. One of the most debatable aspects of this portion of the film is the portrayal of the relationship between Hitch and Vera Miles (Jessica Biel, who plays the role very well). The portrayal of the reasons behind their strangement is dead on, but there's a semi-reconciliation scene which I found sweet and touching, but arguably overstepping the line as there is no indication anything like it ever happened. And it's problematic to see Hitch seemingly resolving his obsession with the "Hitchcock Blonde" just before making The Birds and Marnie with Tippi Hedren, the most notorious Hitchock Blonde of them all. And it's disappointing to see Bernard Hermann reduced to a single scene, and Saul Bass never even mentioned.

          But what really matters to me as that the movie works. As a Hitchcock geek who has poured over more than 30 of his films, and read everything I could about him, I found it delightful to watch Hopkins play him as he creates a masterpiece. A scene of Hitchcock standing in the theater lobby listening to the audience reation to the shower scene may be my favorite scene of the year. And the excellent acting and humorous dialogue should make the film entertaining to most audiences who aren't nearly so familiar with the master of suspense (though they should do themselves a favor and see some of his films. North By Northwest or Rear Window are the ones I'd recommend to start with). I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and it joins my list of favorite movies about movies. If it doesn't live up to everything we Hitchcock fans wanted to be, well, that's an awfully tall order. Think of it as Ed Wood, except it's about the greatest director of all time instead of the worst.

          Hitchock is rated PG-13 for mild violence and some moderately harsh language.