HITCHCOCK

HITCHCOCK
Written by John J. McLaughlin
Directed by Sasha Gervasi
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson

Alfred Hitchcock: You may call me Hitch; hold the cock.

If you’re going to make a movie about one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, your movie had better be good. To put it plainly, Alfred Hitchcock is simply one of the best and most famous film directors in history. And PSYCHO is arguably his most notorious film. It is an unfortunate shame, to say the least, that both the man himself, and this brilliant film, have been over simplified and stripped of all actual suspense and drama for the attempted biopic, HITCHCOCK. It is even more regrettable I’m afraid, to see two winning performances buried in such a middling movie.

HITCHCOCK adapts the modern style of biography filmmaking, choosing to focus on one particular period in the man’s life instead of a more strict adherence to portraying his life from birth to death. This approach worked quite well in films like CAPOTE and MY WEEK WITH MARILYN because, even though we only got a glimpse at their lives, we still got a grander sense of who they were and how they became these people. Screenwriter, John J. McLaughlin (BLACK SWAN), chooses to focus all of his attention on the period where Hitchcock made PSYCHO, but it seems to me it could have been any movie really. After all, all he did was take all these popular ideas of who Hitchcock was as a person, from his obsession with blondes to his overeating to his control issues, and plop them into the behind the scenes of PSYCHO. A setting should have a purpose; this slice of his life should have been so particularly telling that it would also inform on what came before and where the man would go after. Instead, we get in and out of Hitchcock’s life without getting to know very much about him at all.

HITCHCOCK is far from disastrous but it just feels so slight and unfocused, which may be the inexperience of the film's director, Sasha Gervasi. In fact, the only true anchors the film has are its two lead stars, Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren, as Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock. Neither is given very much to work with but they make the most of it every moment they’re on screen. Hopkins takes the caricature he was given on the page and gives us an eye into the man’s soul. This is even more impressive given the size of the fat suit he’s got on. His Hitchcock is anxious, worried, unsure but also passionate and determined. His scenes with Mirren are what brings the film to life. They are a feisty pair and their chemistry truly feels like that of a dedicated, married couple, who have been together for ages. Together, Hopkins and Mirren make HITCHCOCK worth watching.

In conclusion and further to my first point, if you’re going to make a movie about Hitchcock, it should be a film that Hitchcock himself would be proud of. I’m not so sure he would have been able to sit through this one.

Shadow of a Doubt

The brilliance of Hitchcock was that he was able to bring murder, suspense, and mystery to the level of the common man. Here, an average middle class family becomes the center of attention as one of its members is suspected to be a serial killer on the run. Keeping up with his ingenious ways of story telling, Hitchcock moves the focus of the investigation away from the Police and puts it in the hands of a niece (Teresa Wright) who suspects her visiting uncle (Joseph Cotten), whom till recently she adored, to be the serial killer.

Shadow of a Doubt combines two genres beautifully. Initially, the "mystery" of the murderer is kept from the family members and the audience with subtle hints given along the way that lead to the identity of the killer. The second half becomes more "thriller" like with the tension that arises between the family members as the identity becomes known to some, while others are left completely in the dark.

All along, till the very end, Hitchcock still manages to leave a little doubt, both in the minds of the investigating niece and the audience as to the true identity of the killer. That Shadow of a Doubt that lingers in the mind till the final act is what makes Hitchcock one of my all time favorite film makers.  

Rating 4/5 

To Catch A Thief

So far my least favorite Hitchcock thriller, To Catch A Thief is a whodunit on the surface and a love story at heart. A supposedly retired international jewel thief (Carry Grant) living his life in the Rivera is being blamed for a spree of robberies. We follow him as he goes around the beautiful locals trying to find the actual culprit which would prove his innocence to the police and to his ex partners in crime, who themselves are being suspected.

Now, although just the presence of Grace Kelly makes the film worthwhile, I fear that as a thriller it fails tremendously, especially were we to compare it to say North By Northwest. There is no doubt the acting is excellent, but the entire movie seems more like an extended vacation for the crew. Maybe it's the beautiful setting, but aside from a few suspenseful scenes and some good witty dialogue, there really was not much going on.

From a different point of view, the movie also works as a love story between the cocksure thief Grant and the somewhat fascinated-by-a-criminal Kelly. Looking at it from this angle, with the love story amidst all that is going on in the story, the film does come across as more likable. But then again, if I were to go with my feelings during the time of watching the movie, and not analyzing it afterwards, then I would have to stick with my original thought of it as being my least favorite Hitchcock so far.

 

Rating 2.5/5

Dial M for Murder

Hitchcock at his best. A husband (Ray Milland) planning to kill his adulterous wife (Grace Kelly). A murder gone wrong. The murderer (Anthony Dawson) ends up murdered. Perfect set up for an intense and compelling story.

There have been a number of remakes of this brilliant piece of a murder mystery that takes the genre and reverses it by telling the audience everything from the get go. The mystery, as the audience watches, is for the film characters to slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Dial M for Murder is full of suspense and thrills and manages to entice the audience in a sort of cat and mouse one-upmanship game that takes place between the characters. The brilliance of Hitchcock is that although the identity of the culprit is known, all the characters have shades of grey making the audience question their decisions throughout the film.

Obviously, the tension build-up in the final act is typical Hitchcock, edge of the seat, fun. Considering that the entire film has a claustrophobic feel to it, as it is mostly filmed in the confined area of an apartment, and it still manages to entertain, proves why Hitchcock has always been known as the "master" of suspense.

4/5 Star Rating