Hitchcock

When Alfred Hitchcock takes a look at his rough cut of Psycho, he pronounces it stillborn. His wife, Alma, and he will shape it into one the great movies ever made, but unfortunately this film about the making of Psycho, simply called Hitchcock, has no such luck.

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, the first question about this film is, "Why?" I enjoyed the first few scenes, which were about the great director searching for his next project. It made me long to be a film director, ferreting out my next work, and there are some amusing moments, such as when Toni Collette, as Hitchcock's secretary, reminds him that he has been offered The Diary of Anne Frank. Never mind that in 1959, when the film begins, The Diary of Anne Frank had already been made.

But then the movie takes a disastrous turn and tries to do two things: psychoanalyze Hitchcock and painstakingly point out that Alma (Helen Mirren) is integral to his success. I'm sure that has some truth, but this film bends over backwards to prove it. It also has a long and pointless plot thread involving Mirren and a fictional writer (Danny Huston). They collaborate on a script, and Hitchcock becomes unhinged with jealousy.

Those who deal in the horror genre are often overly-psychoanalyzed, as if sane people couldn't possibly make such things. Hitchcock certainly had his quirks, such as a fear of being imprisoned (or falsely accused) and his obsession with icy blondes. But this film is almost unseemly in the way it casts him as something of a pervert. I feel bad for his family.

But beyond that, the film just doesn't hold together. It doesn't offer any insight into Hitchcock's genius, or what made Psycho great. Yes, it was shot on a shoestring, but we don't learn that Hitchcock used his TV crew to save money, or that a body double was used for Janet Leigh in the shower scene (Scarlett Johansson is Leigh, making her look like the world's nicest woman).

Instead we get Anthony Hopkins, wearing horrible makeup, do a lugubrious impersonation of Hitchcock. I never thought of him as Hitchcock--it was always Hopkins in a fat suit.

This movie might have been good had it stuck to Psycho. I kind of liked the inspiration for the film, serial killer Ed Gein, being used as Hitchcock's muse. But it's all surface stuff, like Anthony Perkins being creepy and Vera Miles being hated by Hitchcock because she got pregnant before Vertigo. Watching his is like reading a short, poorly-researched magazine article about the subject.

My grade for Hitchcock: C-.