Hitchcock (2012)
Grade: B+
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Wincott, Jessica Biel and James D’Arcy
Premise: Alfred Hitchcock battles age, grudges and doubting studio bosses to finance and create Psycho, perhaps his best film.
Rated PG-13 for language, suggestive material and some dark themes
Well, Hitchcock came out in the wrong year. Starring Academy Award winners Anthony Hopkins (playing “Master of Suspense” Alfred Hitchcock under a fat suit and a ton of makeup) and Helen Mirren (as his wife, Alma Reville), this fact-based inside look at the making of one of the most famous Hollywood films of all time, 1960’s Psycho, was once considered clear Oscar bait. However, in hindsight, it might have had a better shot at Oscar glory one year prior, in 2011, when two of the year’s most revered films (Hugo and The Artist) reminisced magically about cinema’s early years and another respected film, My Week With Marilyn, told a similar true story about the making of a classic film with famous Hollywood names (also, if you ask me, 2011 had an overall fairly weak group of films competing for the Academy’s top honors, giving this film a better chance of squeezing into the top categories. Oh, I loved Hugo and The Artist, but other key nominations were snared by the very average Moneyball and Tree of Life and the critically-maligned Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Contrast that to this past year, when Hitchcock was released in November but all but disappeared amidst a swarm of quality films that were either too important (Lincoln, Life of Pi, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables) or too irresistible (Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook) to bypass the Academy’s notice.
Why is this relevant? Well, I would have seen Hitchcock a lot sooner if it had gotten more Oscar attention—and I always wondered why a film with such an obvious Oscar-ready pedigree dropped off the radar so entirely. But given the chance to see it, I took it, and I’m glad I did.
I admit I haven’t seen Psycho (of Hitchcock’s many famous films, I’ve only seen The Birds and North by Northwest), but I’ve heard of the infamous shower scene, of Janet Leigh’s deafening screams, of childlike psychopath Norman Bates’ creepy attachment to his Mother. I’ve also heard a lot about how Hitchcock played tricks on his audiences, egged them on, used 3-D and rocking theatre seats and other gags to entice audiences. This might sound a little lame or cheap in hindsight, but keep in mind about half a dozen of Hitchcock’s films are considered among the greatest ever made (other than the ones I mentioned, some of his other “Greatest Hits” include Vertigo, Rear Window and Strangers on a Train).
Anyway, Hitchcock opens with the glitz and glam of the director’s newest soon-to-be classic film, North by Northwest. A reporter asks the 60-year-old director (Hopkins) if his career might have peaked, if he should quit while he’s ahead. These questions haunt Hitchcock, who would be grumpy about being in-between projects even if he wasn’t being forced into a vegetables-only diet by his formidable wife/collaborator (Mirren). But when his receptionist (Toni Collette) gives him a copy of a new book, Robert Bloch’s “Psycho”, based on the real-life serial sociopathic habits of one Ed Gein (Michael Wincott), it sets Hitchcock’s world on fire. It’s grisly, it’s shocking, it’s stunning, it’s like stuff you’ve never seen, and Hitchcock wants in, claiming he can prove there’s a killer in all of us. But his studio won’t finance it, the censorship board is appalled at the contents of the script Hitch gets produced by a squirrelly scribe (Ralph Macchio), and even Alma thinks Hitch might better served adapting a more typical suspense script by her charming friend Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston), who has worked with Hitch before.
Refusing to back down, Hitchcock says he’ll finance the movie himself, he charms some popular actors (James D’Arcy’s Anthony Perkins, Scarlett Johansson’s comely Janet Leigh, even one-time It-Girl Vera Miles, played by Jessica Biel) into playing his parts, and he gets to work. But the movie’s budget starts increasing by the day, the censorship board refuses to give Psycho a seal of approval, the neglected Alma
The rest, as they say, is history. Psycho becomes a huge success, and the film ends with a clever visual pun referencing Hitch’s inspiration for his next big project (I won’t spoil what that is, in case you don’t already know).
For a historical biopic, Hitchcock is a surprisingly breezy watch. Though I’m a huge movie fan, I admittedly haven’t seen or studied much Hitchcock, so I learned a lot about his life and his films. And despite being about a real subject in Hollywood’s history, Hitchcock lacks the over-indulgent feel, and inflated running time, of most important Hollywood self-stories (in fact, the 98-minute Hitchcock is one of those rare movies I wouldn’t have minded going a few scenes longer).
Part of the reason it feels that way is likely because the movie spends as much running time focusing on the clash of wills, jealousy, neglect and stubbornness surrounding Hitch and Alma Alma
Hopkins and Mirren are superb in these roles. While the undeniably huge amount of makeup used to make Hopkins greater resemble the portly, double-chinned Hitchcock is a tiny bit distracting, it nonetheless completely hides Hopkins Alma
If you’re a Hitchcock fan, this film might send you to paradise. If you’re a cinema fan, it’s close. If you just like movies, you’ll surely find something to get excited about in this touching, funny, educational and revealing look at the making of classic.
Hitchcock (2012)
Directed by Sacha Gervasi
Screenplay by John J. McLaughlin; Based on the book “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho” by Stephen Rebello
Rated PG-13
Length: 98 minutes
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