Hitchcock

“Hitchcock” is one of those movies I’d been looking forward to since I first heard about it (too bad it came out after I already moved home, so I couldn’t see it in the theater.) It’s not because I’m a big Hitchcock fan or anything (though I’m fairly familiar with his work, you can’t help it when you’re a film student), but simply because I like biopics, or at least movies about real people, especially people in the entertaining business – I wouldn’t call “Hitchcock” a biopic by any means, as it only focuses on Hitchcock’s relationship with his wife Alma Reville during the making of Psycho.

Well, the movie is as standard as you expect, but I quite enjoyed it. I was skeptical about Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, but he did a pretty good job. Helen Mirren is flawless, as always. Scarlett Johansson looks nothing like Janet Leigh, but after a while I was sold, probably because the movie doesn’t rely on her. I’ve heard complaints that there is too much focus on the love story between Hitchcock and his wife, but without it, the movie would have no heart. You just have to go into it expecting some romance. Actually, my only quibble is the addition of Ed Gein, the real-life inspiration behind Psycho. I appreciate it, especially since Ed Gein is more Jeffrey Dahmer than Norman Bates, but I think it makes the tone a little wonky. There are some funny bits and all this love story going on, and then suddenly you have Hitchcock talking to an imaginary Ed Gein… I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be darkly comedic or dramatic or what.

I’m a bit of an Anthony Perkins fan too, so it’s good thing I didn’t expect to see a whole lot of him, because his role in “Hitchcock” is tiny. James D’Arcy is a good choice physically, though his performance seems to be based solely on Perkins as Norman Bates, and not Perkins himself. I get that they want to address Perkins’ closeted homosexuality, but James D’Arcy played him too quiet and awkward. My friend Katie, who is a huge Anthony Perkins fan, pointed out a scene in which Hitchcock says to Perkins “You may call me Hitch. Hold the Cock,” and Perkins looks visibly uncomfortable. According to Katie, whom I view as the authority on this matter, Tony himself was more likely to make such a joke! Still, like I said, he was in it for a whopping amount of five minutes, so it doesn’t matter. Now… if they’d do an Anthony Perkins biopic with Andrew Garfield, I’d be a happy panda.

Photos courtesy of OutNow.ch

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