Hitchcock

HITCHCOCK

Director : Sacha Gervasi

Year : 2013

Genre : Drama

Rating : ***

As a huge fan of the master of suspense, I was extremely looking to forward to seeing Sacha Gervasi's 'Hitchcock'. Supposedly telling the true story of the making of his 1960 masterpiece 'Psycho' (one of my favourite films of all time) and exploring the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his beloved wife Alma, 'Hitchcock' seemed to be a movie that all true film fans should see. Unfortunately, while delivering good performances and touching on the genius of the greatest director who ever lived, 'Hitchcock' really does seem a wasted opportunity; a film which could have been so much more.

'Hitchcock' begins at the world premiere of 'North By Northwest'. While answering questions for the paparazzi after the screening, a journalist tells the director that, despite his stardom and reputation, his old age has shortened his repertoire and that he should just retire from making films. This question haunts Hitchcock and makes him worry that he become a product and a cliché rather than a world famous prolific director and as a result, he searches for a daring and controversial book to turn into his next movie to break stereotypes. He is soon shown as copy of Robert Bloch's 'Psycho' and after reading the novel, Hitchcock proclaims at a press conference that that the adaptation of the horror novel will be his next picture. However, due to it's levels of violence and depravity, the decision proves to be highly controversial and no movie company will fund the production and as a result, Hitch is forced to mortgage his house to pay for the film himself. This decision causes a rift between he and his wife Alma Reville and 'Hitchcock' switches between the fraught production of the infamous 'Psycho' and the relationship between the master of suspense and his loyal wife.

To me, a movie about Alfred Hitchcock has been way overdue. Widely acknowledged as the greatest and most influential director of all time, it amazes me that it has taken over 30 years since his death for a film about Hitchcock's life to be made. Therefore, it is strange coincidence that we now have two films about Hitch released within 2 months of each other as in December, we had 'The Girl', the HBO/BBC production that told the story of the relationship between Hitchcock and his leading lady in 'The Birds' and 'Marnie' Tippi Hedren. In that film, Toby Jones played Hitch in a much more unsympathetic way, portraying him as a pervy and lusty predator who made his leading ladies life a misery. While many saw it as a hideous character assassin based on the testimonies of a fame hungry attention seeker, I saw it as a believable portrayal of a very complicated and sometimes obsessive man who would sometimes go to extreme measures to get the shots he wanted and to me it was one of the very best films of last year. In stark contrast, 'Hitchcock' portrays Hitch in a much more friendlier and playful way and this only seems false and playing to the popcorn munching multiplex audiences, who want to see a jolly fat man making a horror movie. While Anthony Hopkins gives a good performance behind the padding and latex, to me, 'The Girl' is a truer portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock.

'Hitchcock' is based on the book 'Alfred Hitchcock and the making of 'Psycho' written by Stephen Rebello. Originally the book was going to be made into a TV. mini series, but ideas soon began to develop about making an entire movie adaptation. After multiple production company changes, Fox searchlight bagged the deal and soon the search for a potential director began. British born Sacha Gervasi, best known for his fantastic documentary 'Anvil : The Story of Anvil' was chosen as the director and 'Hitchcock' is his dramatic motion picture debut. He certainly has a good visual eye and 'Hitchcock' is full of beautifully staged set pieces and kinetic camera moves add to the tension and excitement felt through the film. However, unlike Alfred Hitchcock himself who was constantly reinventing the ways in which a camera can be used,  Gervasi doesn't show any ground breaking film techniques or framing. Although of course, no one can 'out Hitchcock' the master himself.

As was well publicised, 'Hitchcock' has a fantastic ensemble cast. Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel play Hitchcock, Alma, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles respectively and every one is good in their parts. Johansson brings the same luscious sexuality to the screen as Leigh did in her 45 minutes on screen in 'Psycho', Biel is well cast as the jealous and hate filled Miles and Mirren gives an award worthy performance as Alma Reville. I will go into detail about Mirren in a while, but first of all I would to say what is right and wrong with Hopkins' Hitch.

As we all know, Hopkins chews the scenery in every single film he stars in and 'Hitchcock' is no exception. However, behind the fantastic make up and padding, there really isn't much to admire. First of all, Hopkins is such a force of nature that I never saw a portrayal of Hitch on screen, rather just Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit, sounding like he had a mouthful of cake. While the make up is impressive, I really didn't think that it made Hopkins look much like Hitchcock at all. In fact, the quality of the make up varies throughout the film and as a result, Hopkins' acting style changes as well. Sometimes, the make up allows him to be expressive and emotional and other times, the make up is so heavy and overdone that Hopkins just looks like an a badly painted portrait. As mentioned earlier, the brilliance of Toby Jones' performance in 'The Girl' was his ability to bring a pretty loathsome but believable Hitchcock to the screen. Hopkins plays the director as a much more jolly and playful man and this characterisation comes across as completely false. If anyone knows anything about the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock, you will know that he was an extremely difficult and sometimes cruel director who made his actors really step out of their comfort zones. It was this darker side to Hitch that I wanted to see and to me, this made 'Hitchcock' slightly fake. Rather than being a true representation of the greatest director who has ever lived, 'Hitchcock' is really nothing more than a pantomime.

Robert Bloch based the book 'Psycho' on the real life crimes of the Wisconsin cannibal killer Ed Gein, and throughout 'Hitchcock', we see scenes of Alfred dreaming of talking to Gein and asking for advice, as if he was a friend. Unfortunately, I absolutely believe that these experiences never happened and these scenes only add to the 'pantomimey' nature of the film. These particular scenes are placed pretty randomly throughout the film and only seem to be in the film to explain the darker side to Hitch, but fail miserably.

The best performance in film is given by Dame Helen Mirren, who brings a vivacity and toughness to the overlooked Alma Reville. As any fan of Alfred Hitchcock knows, Reville is the overlooked scriptwriter and assistant director who helped Hitch through his early career and Mirren plays her as a understandably bitter and hurt woman who while loyal to her husband, wishes for more recognition. To me, Mirren is the heart and soul of 'Hitchcock' and is the main reason to watch the film. Alfred Hitchcock was the man behind the camera, but Reville was the woman always behind Alfred Hitchcock, no matter what. Despite having written the scripts for most of Hitch's early films in England, Reville is never acknowledged for her input and hopefully 'Hitchcock' will change that.

Surprisingly for a film about the making of 'Psycho', there is actually very shown of the actual filming of the now classic film. Only the production of the infamous shower scene is shown and to me, this really isn't enough. Fans of the master of suspense are going to want a lot more 'Psycho' and a lot less Alma and unfortunately, there is much more Alma than there is 'Psycho'. The making of the shower scene is now legendary but there is so much more to explore in the production and filming of the masterpiece and we just don't see it. Like 'Jaws', the production of 'Psycho' is as legendary as the film itself and I would have loved Gervasi to explore that. There is room for a film about the relationship between Hitch and Alma but this film is being marketed as the making of one of the greatest and most loved horror films of all time and sadly, it isn't.

Despite good performances and fantastic opportunities, 'Hitchcock' really isn't the movie that Alfred Hitchcock's legacy deserves. I just hope that a filmmaker will soon uncover the truths about one of the biggest enigmas in cinema history give us the true story of the master of suspense. Sadly, 'Hitchcock' isn't that film.

You will like this if you liked : Psycho & The Girl