“HITCHCOCK” My rating: B (Opening Dec. 7 at the Cinemark Plaza and Glenwood Arts)
98 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
In the new film “Hitchcock” a pretty young thing addresses the famous “Master of Suspense” as “Mr. Hitchcock.”
Responds the great man (Anthony Hopkins): “You may call me Hitch. Hold the cock.”
Ah, the cheeky, naughty, proper-on-the-outside, twisted-on-the-inside Alfred Hitchcock.
“Hitchcock” isn’t your conventional biopic. Rather than attempting to capture a full life, the new film from Sacha Gervasi (whose only previous directing credit was the delightful rock documentary “Anvil: The Story of Anvil”) maintains a narrow focus. It centers on just one year: 1959.
At the time the British-born auteur was shattering tradition and precedent, taking some very big risks, and giving the world “Psycho,” a film that would revive his flagging finances, rejuvenate his reputation, and (for better or worse) redefine what was acceptable to put on a movie screen (for instance, toilets).
Oh, yeah, with its notorious shower scene “Psycho” also launched a new cinema genre, the slasher film.
“Hitchcock” operates on several levels.
On one it chronicles the making of “Psycho,” a film rejected by Hitchcock’s studio as “low-budget horror movie claptrap.”
But what, wonders Hitch, if someone really good made a horror picture? Might it not rise above its tawdry origins to become something special?
To get the project going the director has to go deep into debt, taking out yet another mortgage on his Hollywood home and trimming household expenses to the bone.
Even so, “Psycho” must be made on the cheap, employing the black-and-white cinematography and the low-cost production values employed on Hitchcock’s popular weekly TV show.
But in the end Hitch will own this “nice, clean, nasty piece of work.” The profits will be his. It’s a make-or-break effort.
On another level “Hitchcock” is a study of a marriage. Hitch and the Missus, one-time film editor Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), have settled into cozy, sexless cohabitation. They remain a creative partnership (it is Alma who suggests killing off “Psycho’s” heroine in the first 30 minutes), but it’s all too clear that Alfred has a roving eye.
Think about it … here’s a wonderfully talented and semi-powerful Hollywood player surrounded by beautiful young women, but unable to take advantage of it. It’s not just a question of marital fidelity; the obese Hitch knows he is physically unappealing. And it’s eating away at him. (That gnawing obsession would find a nasty outlet a year later when focused on Tippi Hedren during the making of “The Birds.”)
Meanwhile Alma finds herself being courted by a charming screenwriter (Danny Huston), whose real motive is to employ her skill in editing his latest script. If Hitch has amorous fantasties, why shouldn’t she as well?
Sprinkled throughout (somewhat incongruously), are scenes from the life of Ed Gein, the serial killer who was the inspiration for “Psycho.” Occasionally the shade of Gein (Michael Wincott) even appears to Hitch.
The main problem with “Hitchcock” is that Gervasi and screenwriter John J. McLaughlin have given us two movies. One is amusing and filled with insights into behind-the-scenes Hollywood. The other, about middle age and growing domestic discord, feels forced and melodramatic.
Keeping the boat from capsizing is Hopkins. Even with tons of prosthetics, he doesn’t look that much like Alfred Hitchcock (at least full faced…in profile he’s pretty convincing). But Hopkins sounds like Hitch (ah, those plummy tones!) and moves like Hitch (solemn in repose, a sort of dancing bear on the go). He beautifully captures the director’s outward arrogance and nagging self doubts. And in the end the performance wins you over.
Mirren, who doesn’t have to worry about playing a recognizable character, is quite good as Alma…although she naturally exudes a sexuality never present in any photos/footage of the real Alma I’ve ever seen.
The supporting cast is deep and wonderful: Toni Collette as Hitch’s Girl Friday; Scarlett Johanssen as “Psycho” star Janet Leigh; Michael Stuhlbarg as Hitch’s agent, Lew Wasserman; Jessica Biel as actress Vera Miles; James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins (he’s an uncanny dead ringer for the sexually ambiguous actor).
My suspicion is that this is a movie mostly for movie geeks, the sort of people who have read the many Hitchcock biographies and David Thomson’s insightful and informative book The Moment of Psycho and will relish seeing on screen the anecdotes that delight and appall on the printed page.
It’s solid and entertaining. But one gets the feeling that Gervasi was hoping for the profound.
Sorry, not this time.
| Robert W. Butler
Robert, have you ever done a movie script? Would you be interested in doing a killer one?
My spouse and I enjoyed this move at the Glenwood Cinema this evening. We are, admittedly, Hitchcock fans. I thought the “two movies” comment was right on, especially However, I thought the two themes blended together better than I expected after reading this review last week, though that was probably due to the strength of the performances.