Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine August 2013 | Page 26

Hitchcock. NOW ON DEMAND & ON DVD. 2012. Rated PG-13. 98
minutes. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson.
Directed by Sacha Gervasi.
A love story between influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville during the
filming of Psycho in 1959.
elizabeth: You know when you go out and have a really spectacular meal with close friends
or you are kissed by someone who knows what they are doing that the feeling stays with you
and you just want to keep revisiting it? Well, Hitchcock was like a kiss on my lips and I felt
full and satisfied when the credits started to roll. I got to say that this is one of the best
movies made in 2012 – a movie that did not get its due. I apologize to director Sacha
Gervasi for not going to see it in the theatre.
Nicole: Oh-oh. We’re going to come to blows over this one, aren’t we? (Finally, I’ve been
waiting to get into fisticuffs with you.) While I liked the movie in part, I couldn’t help being
distracted by some questionable creative decisions. But I’ll let you digress before I really tear
into it.
elizabeth: What a terrific cast. Anthony Hopkins was unrecognizable as famed director
Alfred Hitchcock and there was such great on-screen chemistry with his wife Alma Reville,
who was portrayed brilliantly by Helen Mirren. Can this woman ever do a bad movie? And
this was a well-written and witty movie that elevated the viewer and never insulted our
intelligence.
Nicole: OK, I will relent that the casting (aside from Scarlet Johansson as a very
unconvincing Janet Leigh) was well done. But hands down, the best thing about this movie
was Helen Mirren. Best scene in the movie is when she gives him his comeuppance (and I
do hope that actually happened, word for word).
elizabeth: There was quite a bit on Hitchcock’s fantasy life on the screen and I felt that just
made him appear more vulnerable, flawed and maybe a little more likable. He was the boy
who never gets the girl. But let me just say that if I was on the set and he came over to me, I
would have hit him with a shovel. The Creep Meter kept going off in my head.
Nicole: Ah, you’ve touched upon one of the things that irked me. Hitchcock’s obsession with
his blonde leading ladies is the stuff of notorious Hollywood legends – well, more fact than
legend according to many tell-all autobiographies. And save for the filming of the shower
scene, I don’t think the movie accurately portrayed his crazed obsession and anger
management issues. I also don’t think the relationship between Hitch and Alma was
accurate – they didn’t like each other nearly as much as this film portrayed.
From what I understand, their relationship was more in keeping with the portrayal seen in
HBO’s The Girl, starring Sienna Miller. You want creep factor – I grew to hate Hitchcock as a
person after seeing that movie, which was difficult considering how Rear Window is in my
Top 5 films ever made.