{"id":23932,"date":"2012-12-17T21:05:38","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T05:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=23932"},"modified":"2012-12-19T07:31:42","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T15:31:42","slug":"hitchcock-sacha-gervasi-2012-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=23932","title":{"rendered":"Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi, 2012): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the Harmony Gold Theater, Los Angeles, CA, Sponsored by Turner Classics.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 On the heels of success of North by Northwest (1959), <\/em>and after the slight disappointment in returns from Vertigo (1958), <\/em>director Alfred Hitchcock’s next intended project was Psycho (1960)<\/em>, much to the dismay of his producers at Paramount.<\/p>\n

Facing\u00a0the dilemma that\u00a0Paramount wants\u00a0“another North by Northwest,” Hitchcock<\/em><\/a> (Anthony Hopkins) pursues his own interest, in making a film about “a queer killing people, in his mother’s dress.”\u00a0 Consequently he has to mortgage his home for financing,\u00a0while his closest confidant and wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren),\u00a0is out and about pursuing her own interests in writing and romance.<\/p>\n

Under great strain, obstacles occur with the MPAA regarding the close up of a flushing commode,\u00a0and for nudity in a shower scene, where upon Hitch\u00a0declares in his slow drawl, “she won’t be nude, she’ll be in a shower cap.”<\/p>\n

Alma, his former boss and an expert writer, director, and editor in her own right,\u00a0and\u00a0upon whom Hitch relies heavily, finds herself feeling under-appreciated, unloved, and haunted by Hitch’s beautiful leading ladies.\u00a0 In a collaborative effort with another writer, she becomes seduced into abandoning the self-centered Hitch in his greatest hour of need.\u00a0 While battling an illness however, Hitch is confined to his bed, and\u00a0with a strong sense of duty and loyalty, Alma aptly pulls everything together for him on the set.<\/p>\n

Hitchcock<\/em> is loosely based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, <\/em>and is wonderfully entertaining.\u00a0 While Hopkins’ distinctive clipped diction is highly recognizable, he attempts to slow it down considerably, and with that effort one can soon\u00a0forget it is Hopkins that we are observing and not Hitchcock.\u00a0 Likewise with the makeup, which is at once alarming, and could border on campy, if\u00a0not for the\u00a0highly-skilled instinct of Hopkins, who adroitly keeps our focus on the somewhat\u00a0muddled theme – one of letting go.<\/p>\n

Hitch is a bit of a control freak and is eventually forced to submit to Alma’s instincts, who in turn must acquiesce to Hitch’s raw\u00a0talent.\u00a0 Since Alma’s work was behind the scenes, there is not a lot we know about her, or have anything to compare Mirren’s performance to.\u00a0 Hitchcock <\/em>really is an ode to their enduring partnership – one where Alma may not have always received her due credit.\u00a0 With this ghostly obstacle, Mirren delivers a completely reliable and solid performance.<\/p>\n

To my estimation the film’s title is misleading, and a more effective title might have been Hitch, Alma, and Psycho<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at the Harmony Gold Theater, Los Angeles, CA, Sponsored by Turner Classics. \u00a0 On the heels of success of North by Northwest (1959), and after the slight disappointment in returns from Vertigo (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock’s next intended project was Psycho (1960), much to the dismay of his producers at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}