Review of Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005) by Brian B — 26 May 2009

A poor script, that can't masquerade its ineptness with homages to "Rear Window", "Strangers on a Train" and "Vertigo". The twist and resolution make little sense and depends on the charectors acting like total idiots for the final 10 minutes.

There's close to no gore, which is understandable as this is a TV movie produced for RAI Uno. But there is no suspense either, and as this movie was constructed as a homage to the master of suspense.

One scene tries hard to be tense (when Guillio tries to get away on a scooter from somebody chasing him), but it's woefully handled as the scene drags on for far too long and becomes funnier than any of the comedy bits.

So what's left? Now, like any Argento fan would do, I would be ready to forget and forgive all these, if his usual flair for visual perfection was on display. But we get none of it. No intriguing camera work, no cameras peering from impossible angles, no rich set pieces, no perverse black-gloved killer, no inventive killings, nothing.

In the end the film is just another formulaic, uneventful thriller.