Film: Hitchcock
Review: The upcoming Oscar season is shaping up to be quite competitive. Between, Argo, Lincoln, Anna Karenina, and now Hitchcock – I can already see some major upsets. The film season hasn’t even concluded and we still have yet to see the remainiang highly anticipated films of the season - Les Misérables, Hobbit, and Django Unchained.
I remember when I was a child gathering around the TV to watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents – TV series. My parents would allow my siblings and I to watch a couple of episodes under their supervision of course. I had nightmares from a few of those episodes. Even though the episodes were over 20 years old and in black and white, the sinister music and power of suggestion was just enough to spook my 10 year old little mind.
Alfred Hitchcock is arguable one of the greatest directors of all time and the film Hitchcok, touches on why he was so brilliant at creating movies. This film runs two parallel stories. The first being how Alfred Hitchcock made his mega-hit “Psycho” and the second, the love story of his marriage. You know its going to be a great film once Anthony Hopkins and Dame Helen Mirren appear. I’ve been a HUGE Anthony Hopkins fan. Ever since “Legend of the Falls”, I’ve found Hopkins so fascinating on the silver screen. Hopkins was exceptional in this movie! From the famous Hitchcock profile down to the iconic black and white suit, his transformation into the legendary director was uncanny. He was also brilliantly funny with his dry and unexpected sense of humor. As good as Hopkins was in this film, Helen Mirren was the stand out star. She was strong, smart, witty, and even regal at times. Her portrayal of Alma Reville is definitely worth an Oscar nomination. Alfred Hitchcock and his wife had a true partnership….. in business and in love. Alma Reville knew just as much if not more about what it took to create an award winning film. There’s a perfect screen depicting this, when Hitchcok becomes ill while filming Pyscho. They’re two days behind schedule and Alma steps in to save her husbands struggling film. She’s also the driving force in Hitchcock securing distribution for the film when the studio wanted to shut it down. Pyscho was deemed “wildly inappropriate” for audiences by the motion picture associate. It was unheard of for a film to show a flushing toilet, suggestion of nudity, and violence during 1960′s. Psycho pushed the cultural boundaries and in the end became one of the most successful films of its time as well as Hitchcock’s career. I find it a bit hypocritical that the film association initially found the film to be unfit for theaters. Especially, when the civil rights movement was at the height of its fight for justice. We’ve all seen old footage of those horrible images of cops beating civilians during the civil rights protests in 1960. I guess it was okay to show those images of violence on the news but not in a movie for entertainment value.
Hitchcock is lovely film with a beautiful story about how one man’s success was due to the amazing woman who stood behind him – his wife Alma. I guess that old saying is true -”behind every successful man is great woman”
Best line in the movie: “And that’s why they call me the Master of Suspense”
