Perfect cast and a good story

Great Film overall

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

1/12/18. A nicely done biopic about Hitchcock and his relationship with his wife, a loyal collaborator through thick and thin. The movie basically concentrated on Hitchcock's attempt to stay solvent why staying true to his craft in his development of the movie Psycho from the book. Hopkins was amazing as Hitchcock and got his diction down pat, Mirren was a wonderful Mrs. Hitchcock. Supporting cast was fantastic. Kudos to Johansson who nailed the shower scene perfectly. Worth catching!

I waited a long time before watching Hitchcock and I wonder why. It was better than I expected it to be. But then again with a cast like that it's difficult to go wrong. Anthony Hopkins playing Hitchcock himself is a delight to watch. His make-up is stunning and for that alone the make-up artists deserve credits. Helen Mirren is always good and in Hitchcock she excels again. Scarlett Johansson, well she's a candy for the eye, but not only that, she's also an excellent actress. The story of Hitchcock was interesting to watch, to see how the master of suspense was in real life. An easy to follow movie with an excellent cast.

I had really low expectations for this movie going in. I hate it when big name actors in the autumn of their years go in for playing dress up, putting on lots of makeup and pretending to be legendary icons. I was really dreading Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit for two hours, walking around saying "Good Evening," in a phony Hitchcock voice. Funnily enough, I was right that Hopkins as Hitchcock was mostly mannerism and very little real emotion. But surrounding him is the most amazing cast, and they bring together a miracle -- a story of warmth and humor about the making of a truly ghastly film, Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Although Helen Mirren receives most of the attention as Hitchock's patient, long suffering wife Alma, (looking pained and thoughtful in every scene, even when she's trying on a new bathing suit) it's really the younger ladies who steal the show. Scarlett Johannson is an enchanting Janet Leigh -- sexy, playful, eager to please, obviously very ambitious but fun-loving and friendly as well. Jessica Biel is even more amazing as Vera Miles, the "bad girl" who said no to Hitchcock and refuses to back down before him on the set of his latest film. With only a small part, Jessica Biel still conjures up an air of mystery and allure, defiance and enigmatic power. Hitchcock hates that he can't own her, like the make believe women in his movies. Yet the viewer ends up loving her for that very reason!The truth is, as a story about Hitchcock himself this movie isn't much. It's his amazing team that comes to life. James D'Arcy barely gets five minutes as Anthony Perkins, the twitchy and closeted boy actor who made Norman Bates into a legend. Yet D'Arcy plays Perkins with such absolute and utter assurance that you wish the whole movie was about him. The same with Michael Stuhlbarg, (Arnold Rothstein in the HBO series BOARDWALK EMPIRE) who plays Hitchcock's long time agent and business manager. These guys walk off with every scene and are just as powerful as the ladies! Oddly enough, this movie reminded me less of PSYCHO and more of KING LEAR. You have an aging titan, a king who wants to control everyone around him. And all of the lesser characters have to find their own path to independence, obeying and setting limits, defying but showing loyalty. It's easy to see how Janet Leigh becomes the "good" daughter in Hitchcock's imagination, like Cordelia, while Vera Miles becomes the "bad" daughter, like Regan and Goneril. But unlike in Lear both daughters learn how to assert themselves while helping the king to regain his throne. It's an oddly warm and touching story set against the making of a nightmare film. Favorite scene: Hitchcock, telling Tony Perkins that he's "peeping" at the naked woman in the shower. James D'Arcy looks so sweet and helpless (and gay) saying, "Mr. Hitchcock, why would Norman want to look at that woman in the shower?" And Janet Leigh is so naughty and sexy, saying, "I feel very insulted by that question!" But the minute she sees how clueless Tony Perkins is, she shifts gear and comes right to his rescue. ("Maybe this is a ritual for him. Maybe this reminds him of his mother!") It's so funny, so sweet, so sad, and it actually helps you understand how PSYCHO was made. Now why did I give this movie seven stars instead of nine or ten? Well, I was right about how bad Tony Hopkins looks in a fat suit. He's really just phoning it in. And Helen Mirren is just irritating as the endlessly put-upon wife. Who, for some strange reason, has the most amazing collection of eyeglasses this side of Elton John! Did anyone else notice she wears a different pair in every scene? And they all look very, very Nineties, not at all the early Sixties! Oh, and her reddish brown wig is on crooked in a lot of scenes too. Little things like that are all that keep HITCHCOCK from being a true gem!

First of all, this is not a biography of Alfred Hitchcock, as some viewers have thought it to be. It's all about the foreigners who came to Hollywood and made game-changing cinema art in spite of desperate and idiotic resistance from the All-American studios and censors. That's what the film is about. The point in case could have been Chaplin, Lang, Forman, Scott, there have been so many. It happens to be Hitchcock and his battle to make Psycho, directed by a another Brit with probably similar experiences. I would compare Hitchcock with another 2012 movie, Spielberg's Lincoln, also often misunderstood as a biographical effort. The problem with chronological biography films is that the viewer usually knows the plot beforehand and has strong feelings about how it should be presented and what actors should look like. Both Hitchcock and Lincoln take a refreshing approach, concentrating on just a few decisive months of their respective careers instead of decades of events. Psycho proceeded from Hitch reading the novel to the release of the film in less than a year. The relationship of Hitch and his wife Alma Reville is revisited in the light of their shared determination to complete the film, so it's more about a working relationship than about a love affair in any remotely normal sense. Anthony Hopkins pulls off his Hitch characterization, which could have been silly in some other context. Helen Mirren really let's loose as Reville, and Scarlett Johansson does her Hitchcock blonde thing so perfectly one cannot but empathize with the old geezer's obsession. I was going to give the film 8 points but I just have to add one more for Ms. Johansson. By the way, I was a small child when Psycho came out, but I remember the scary newspaper ads and all the viewers absolutely flat out refusing to tell the curious what all the fuzz was about and what happens in the film. It was a game changer that changed the film industry for ever back in 1960. Secrets could be kept then.