After the overblown Mumbai jumbai of LIFE OF PI and the atrocious vanity of JACK REACHER, the first half decent film of 2013 has arrived.
HITCHCOCK (M) has Anthony Hopkins playing the portly film maker Alfred Hitchcock at the time where he was trying to make what is probably his most notorious picture, Psycho.
Riding high on the success of North by Northwest which expunged the dizzying disappointment of Vertigo at the box office, Hitch was offered a slew of projects, including the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, which he turned down, opting instead for a pulp fiction pot-boiler by Robert Bloch.
It’s hard to believe that back in 1960 this story was thought so shocking, although the power of the picture remains, especially the infamous shower scene.
Getting the picture made was hampered by both studio big shots and censorious bureaucrats who maintained moral standards in the movies.
Hitchcock’s sounding board was his wife, Alma Reville, played here by Helen Mirren in another virtuoso performance by this venerable actress. While looking nothing like the real woman, Mirren imbues her performance with the astute pluckiness and fortitude Alma must have possessed.
“Among those many people who have contributed to my life,” said Alfred Hitchcock, while accepting the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979, “I ask permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor. The second is a scriptwriter. The third is the mother of my daughter, Pat. And the fourth is a fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville.”
A stalwart collaborator on his films from inception to completion, Mirren’s Alma in this film is pursuing non Hitch projects in an attempt to stamp her own creativity outside the shadow of her spouse, a response in part to her public invisibility and Hitch’s seemingly insensitive fixation on blonde starlets.
The supporting cast is impressive. Scarlett Johansson plays Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins. Toni Collette plays Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock’s personal assistant for the last twenty years of his life.
Director Sacha Gervasi, who made the excellent documentary, ANVIL and screenwriter John McLaughlin who wrote Black Swan have fashioned a very fine film, utilising the interesting device of having the real life source for Norman Bates, the serial killer, Ed Gein, beautifully played by Michael Wincott, spectrally mentoring the great director.
Good evening.
(c) Richard Cotter
2nd January, 2013
Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews-HITCHCOCK, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johannson, Jessica Biel, James D’Arcy, Toni Collette, Sacha Gervasi, John McLaughlin, Michael Wincott, Sydney Arts Guide, Richard Cotter