Review of Hitchcock (2012) by Akash S — 15 Jul 2013

It's always fascinating to go back and visit the sets of your favourite movies, and Hitchcock's cult classic 'Psycho is no exception. It's interesting to see our generation's talented actors play important characters from our Cinematic History, and to witness how much struggle Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville had to go through to transform their ambitious & out-of-the-box psychological thriller into reality, but ultimately, the plot lacks depth and fails to have any impact.

Anthony Hopkins looks amazing as Alfred Hitchcock, and Scarlett Johansson is ravishing as Miss Leigh, but it is Helen Mirren, as Alma Reville, who gives a powerful performance. Hopkins and Mirren's chemistry is delightful. Toni Collete and Jessica Biel are wonderful as support. In spite of having these terrific line-up of actors, the characters like certain depth and texture because of which they end up being caricatures of what they could have been.

The hallucinations of the Ed Gein character around Hitchcock's head were certainly unnecessary, and they don't add anything substantial to the plot. And the film gives too much credit to Alma, and makes Hitchcock look like some talentless and stubborn buffoon who just wanted to make the movie. Hitchcock's innovative and visionary contributions to the genre of thrillers, through 'Psycho', is completely overlooked.

It ends up being one of those beautiful looking movies which you can watch and forget.