It was a brave move to award directorial duties of Hitchcock to Sacha Gervasi, whose only previous stint behind the lens was Anvil: The Story of Anvil. A fine film, certainly, but a documentary! Perhaps writing duties on Spielberg's The Terminal swayed it for him. He does a reasonable job here with telling a pleasant story, but fails to get under the skin of the man or deliver the punch to his audience in the way Hitchcock did with his.
Hitchcock leads us though a short segment of the great director's life as he discovers, shoots and unleashes his most famous success, Psycho, upon the world. It's a pleasant window through which to look but nothing sparkles, no performances stand out and it quickly fades from memory.
In 2006, Phillip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for playing the eponymous Capote but was inferior to Toby Jones in the superb but virtually unseen Truman Capote biopic Infamous. It is a similar tragedy this year for Toby Jones after the excellent TV movie The Girl, in which he stuns and shines in equal measure. In The Girl, we understand what drives Hitchcock; we experience his relationship with his wife of over fifty years, Alma Reville; we understand his cruelty and extreme methods; ultimately we leave the cinema respecting him but thinking 'What a genius, what an unpleasant man.' Hitchcock is a nice film that paints a picture. The Girl ripped the skin off the man to see what was tumbling in the maelstrom underneath.
Jones is one of those rare actors with a chameleon-like ability to be absorbed into the character (like Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale and, at times, Ben Kingsley) but it is Hopkins with the knighthood. Yes, he gives a reasonable representation of Hitchcock but is never truly convincing. His accent slips too often, he stumbles out of character and one never forgets that it is Hopkins we are watching and not Hitch.
The same is true of Helen Mirren. In this, she is fully shaded by Imelda Staunton's portrayal of Alma. She entertains but fails to find the soul that inhabits Alma and cannot shake off her own persona completely.
As for Scarlett Johansson, though she tries hard to give a reasonable approximation of Janet Leigh, she appears to struggle to find a character to cling to and seems lost in Hitchcock, uncertain how to play the part. Only when she completes the infamous shower scene, after Hitch has cleaved the emotion from her, do we feel we have witnessed her act.
Of the peripheral characters, it is a shame to see Danny Huston slipping back into an almost inconsequential supporting role, as Whitfield Cook, after his excellent turn in the limelight in Boxing Day. And too little is made of Anthony Perkins (played by James D'Arcy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to him in this), despite his importance to Psycho.
With Anvil, Gervasi seemed assured of his characters and the story he needed to tell. With Hitchcock he appears to have trusted in the star power of his actors too much and answered every query with yet another profile shot of the man as if, because the audience expects it, it must be repeated as often as possible. But at least the music is as involving in his feature debut, this time courtesy not of a failed rock band but of the rather more successful Danny Elfman.
Hitchcock is a pleasant film to watch that demands nothing from its audience. If you want a Hitchcock biopic that demands emotional involvement, stay at home and download The Girl.
For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.
Hitchcock leads us though a short segment of the great director's life as he discovers, shoots and unleashes his most famous success, Psycho, upon the world. It's a pleasant window through which to look but nothing sparkles, no performances stand out and it quickly fades from memory.
In 2006, Phillip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for playing the eponymous Capote but was inferior to Toby Jones in the superb but virtually unseen Truman Capote biopic Infamous. It is a similar tragedy this year for Toby Jones after the excellent TV movie The Girl, in which he stuns and shines in equal measure. In The Girl, we understand what drives Hitchcock; we experience his relationship with his wife of over fifty years, Alma Reville; we understand his cruelty and extreme methods; ultimately we leave the cinema respecting him but thinking 'What a genius, what an unpleasant man.' Hitchcock is a nice film that paints a picture. The Girl ripped the skin off the man to see what was tumbling in the maelstrom underneath.
Jones is one of those rare actors with a chameleon-like ability to be absorbed into the character (like Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale and, at times, Ben Kingsley) but it is Hopkins with the knighthood. Yes, he gives a reasonable representation of Hitchcock but is never truly convincing. His accent slips too often, he stumbles out of character and one never forgets that it is Hopkins we are watching and not Hitch.
The same is true of Helen Mirren. In this, she is fully shaded by Imelda Staunton's portrayal of Alma. She entertains but fails to find the soul that inhabits Alma and cannot shake off her own persona completely.
As for Scarlett Johansson, though she tries hard to give a reasonable approximation of Janet Leigh, she appears to struggle to find a character to cling to and seems lost in Hitchcock, uncertain how to play the part. Only when she completes the infamous shower scene, after Hitch has cleaved the emotion from her, do we feel we have witnessed her act.
Of the peripheral characters, it is a shame to see Danny Huston slipping back into an almost inconsequential supporting role, as Whitfield Cook, after his excellent turn in the limelight in Boxing Day. And too little is made of Anthony Perkins (played by James D'Arcy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to him in this), despite his importance to Psycho.
With Anvil, Gervasi seemed assured of his characters and the story he needed to tell. With Hitchcock he appears to have trusted in the star power of his actors too much and answered every query with yet another profile shot of the man as if, because the audience expects it, it must be repeated as often as possible. But at least the music is as involving in his feature debut, this time courtesy not of a failed rock band but of the rather more successful Danny Elfman.
Hitchcock is a pleasant film to watch that demands nothing from its audience. If you want a Hitchcock biopic that demands emotional involvement, stay at home and download The Girl.
For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.