Caught up with the recent Hitchcock biopic last night and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Directed by Sacha Gervasi (who directed the great 2008 documentary on 80s Canadian heavy metal band Anvil), Hitchcock examines the relationship between the director and his wife Alma during the making of his genre-changing 1960 classic Psycho. It doesn't paint as negative a portrait of Hitch as the other recent biopic The Girl did, but it's still not a wholly endearing portrait of the master of suspense and his curious peccadilloes.
Nice production design, and loved seeing the recreation of the filming of Psycho and it's cinematic release - the movie reiterates just what a big gamble Psycho was for Hitchcock and how ground-breaking it was at the time, and how much the studio heads hated it (until it was released and started making a fortune for them, of course). Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren turn in dependable performances as Alfred and Alma, Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy are more than serviceable as Janet Leigh and Tony Perkins, while Jessica Biel (as Vera Miles) and Toni Collette (as Hitch's assistant) are terrific and virtually unrecognizable. Also a surprise to see the original Karate Kid star, Ralph Macchio, turn up playing Joseph Stefano, the writer who penned the screenplay for Psycho. And loved the running apperance by Michael Wincott as Ed Gein, the Wisconsin psychopath, grave-robber and ghoul who inspired Robert Bloch's original novel on which the film was based.
Nice production design, and loved seeing the recreation of the filming of Psycho and it's cinematic release - the movie reiterates just what a big gamble Psycho was for Hitchcock and how ground-breaking it was at the time, and how much the studio heads hated it (until it was released and started making a fortune for them, of course). Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren turn in dependable performances as Alfred and Alma, Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy are more than serviceable as Janet Leigh and Tony Perkins, while Jessica Biel (as Vera Miles) and Toni Collette (as Hitch's assistant) are terrific and virtually unrecognizable. Also a surprise to see the original Karate Kid star, Ralph Macchio, turn up playing Joseph Stefano, the writer who penned the screenplay for Psycho. And loved the running apperance by Michael Wincott as Ed Gein, the Wisconsin psychopath, grave-robber and ghoul who inspired Robert Bloch's original novel on which the film was based.
