Hitchcock (2012)

In 1959 Alfred Hitchcock was on top of the world, his bright Technicolor thrillers such as North By Northwest were making fortunes, he had a top rated television series and was recognized and admired all over the world. What Hitchcock wasn't however was cutting edge (any more) and that's what he wanted to be. So along comes Psycho, author Robert Bloch's novel based loosely on the life of Wisconsin murder and grave robber Ed Gein. This gruesome property was quickly snapped up by Hitch and with the weight of industry opinion against him the 'master of suspense' mortgaged his own home to get his movie made. In black and white, inspired by an unpleasant  true story, a quarter of the budget of his previous picture, little advertising, and with undertones of homosexuality and mother obsession, not to mention losing its female lead less then halfway through the story, Psycho quite unexpectedly become a phenomenal, cinematic touchstone, career highlight of a success  (Budget $806,947, Box Office $50,000,000).

Based on Stephen Rebello's 1990 non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, director Sacha Gervasi's film tells the behind the scenes story of a landmark films creation, from Hitchcock's initial desire to shatter the expectations of all he had done before, to Psycho's ultimate great success. Now Hitchcock pads things, its not a documentary and I'm not sure how much strain Alfred and wife Alma's marriage was going through during all this, and I don't much care either way because the weakness of the film is inherent in the conceit of its basic plot, its just about making a movie, and we know how this one turns out, so its not a lot to hang a 98 minute dramatic narrative on.

The best thing this movie has going for it is Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, he does an amazing imitation, with the voice, and in all that prosthetics, but I honestly think it would have been put to better use hosting a new version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Helen Mirren plays Alma Reville Hitchcock, she's always good and Mrs. Hitch is interesting, but the marital difficulties here feel pro-forma, I'm sure he wasn't the easiest man to live with, but I'm sure she had her ways of dealing with it, they were married for 54 years after all. Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel are eye candy who play eye candy of a different era, Kurtwood Smith plays the Breen Office, James D'Arcy suitably brings out Anthony Perkins fay qualities, and Michael Stuhlbarg is safely cast as Lew Wasserman but sadly given the perfectness of this has very little to do.

In short Hitchcock is just an okay movie about a really impressive movie. **1/2