Hitchcock
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Toni Collette
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Rating: 3/5
Alfred Hitchcock is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time and was nicknamed the ‘master of suspense’.
But the story that has never been told is the relationship that he had with his wife Alma Reville and how influential she was on his directing career - they really were the perfect filmmaking team.
Hitchcock sees Sacha Gervasi make his feature length directorial debut and he has assembled one of the best
Hitchcock is a love story about one of the most influential filmmakers of the last century, Alfred Hitchcock and his wife and partner Alma Reville.
The film takes place during the making of Hitchcock's seminal movie Psycho - film that the studio did not want the director to make and yet it went on to be his biggest success.
Hitchcock is a perfectly entertaining movie that takes you behind the curtain of a relationship that many of us knew very little about.
There is a great chemistry between Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as Alfred and Alma, a couple who do love one another and yet they do no always see eye to eye.
Reville struggles with Hitchcock’s obsession with his leading ladies while Hitchcock suspects his wife of having an affair with writer Whitfield Cook.
While all that is great you never feel that this film truly gets under the skin of either them and instead it feels like a very simple telling of what is a very complex relationship.
We see glimpses of Alma’s loneliness and insecurities - the office scene where she finds all of the photographs of leading actresses is a particularly powerful moment.
This film of Psycho is based on the crimes of serial killer Ed Gein and as Hitchcock is making the film he begins have visions of the murderer.
And while Hitchcock is under a lot of financial and studio pressure whilst making this film these visions perhaps don’t effectively show that - Gervasi has missed a real trick with this, which is a shame.
Hitchcock could have been an intriguing movie about how Hitchcock created one of the great horror films of all time and the toll that it took on him personally and yet it turns more into a light hearted romp.
That is not to say that Hitchcock is not enjoyable as it is a movie that I would happily sit through again, but you just feel that the director has really missed a trick here.
Hitchcock is entertaining an engaging and has two great performances as its core through in some great comedic moments and a terrific supporting cast and you do have an enjoyable film - but it is a little disappointing.
Hitchcock is out now
Tagged in Alfred Hitchcock Helen Mirren