Alfred Hitchcock had a rough 2012. Sacha Gervais's Hitchcock purports to celebrate the director but depicts him as a repressed, voyeuristic weirdo. That's complementary next to Julian Jarrold's The Girl, an HBO Films production which borders on character assassination. While preparing The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) spots model Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) in a commercial. Instantly smitten, he offers Hedren the leading role. Initially Hedren's flattered, but she finds Hitchcock a demanding taskmaster on and off the set. Their collaboration is a success, and Hitchcock taps Hedren to appear in his next film, Marnie. Hedren's increasingly unnerved by Hitchcock's attention, which escalates from flirtation and bawdy jokes to stalking, harassment and worse.
The Girl draws from Donald Spoto's Spellbound by Beauty, which explores Hitchcock's alleged sexual hang-ups. It's a controversial topic, as Hitchcock's eccentricities affected everyone differently. It's telling that many collaborators lined up against the film. Kim Novak and Eva Marie Saint denied any harassment from Hitchcock, merely professional attentiveness. From other sources, we know that Grace Kelly and Janet Leigh laughed off Hitchcock's lewd limericks and pranks.
But these ladies were established stars. Hedren was a newcomer, and his vulgarity didn't seem so innocent. Besides jokes, Hedren recounts resisting Hitchcock's sexual advances in torrid detail. This seems depressingly credible; it's not the first time a director took advantage of an ingénue. Hedren claims that Hitchcock sabotaged her career, a more questionable claim challenged by biographers. Hedren wasn't a budding Grace Kelly cut down, but a mediocre actress harassed by a spurned lover. Unfortunately, The Girl can only paint in broad strokes. Gwyneth Hughes' script is melodramatic mush, pitting poor innocent Tippi against master lecher Hitchcock. Tippi gushes to Hitchcock that "I'm putty in your hands!" Too bad Hitchcock takes her literally, reenacting Vertigo in real life - casting Hedren as a real "Hitchcock blonde." One sympathizes with Tippi's ordeal, but Sienna Miller's performance is so flat and affectless it's hard to root for her.
If Hitchcock's characterizations are questionable, The Girl's prove borderline slanderous. Alma Hitchcock (Imelda Staunton) and secretary Peggy Robertson (Penelope Miller) are enablers for Hitch's lechery. Though dramatically tedious, Hitchcock's idea that Alma resisted Whitfield Cook's advances has a factual basis. The Girl shows Hitchcock dismissing Alma as a glorified sister, and Alma subsequently leaving him, apropos of nothing.
But who could love The Girl's Hitchcock? Toby Jones is a one-note creep, rarely changing his inexpressive glower throughout the film. Which fits the script compiling every imaginable cheap shot. Hitchcock complains about his weight, insults Alma and browbeats assistants. When not torturing Tippi with real birds, he's fondling her breasts, drunk dialing her on Christmas and demanding sexual favors. Even Hedren concedes Hitchcock's charm and talent; how could she have tolerated a 24 hour monster? After 90 minutes of tawdriness, The Girl climaxes with a Hallmark Hall of Fame resolution. Hitchcock again propositions Tippi, then threatens to destroy her career. Tippi berates Hitchcock for turning "a real woman into a statue," which would be an applause line from anyone less lifeless. Then a title card informs us that critics consider Marnie a masterpiece. Why aren't I surprised that The Girl can't even get its postscript right?
