The story follows the life of famous film director Alfred Hitchcock, or “Hitch,” as he goes about creating one of the greatest horror films of all time, Psycho. He is met with resistance at every turn by the rather prudish film authorities of the time, but his persistence helps to bring a new level of acceptable violence and sexuality to the film industry. Hitchcock also revolves around the deteriorating relationship of Hitch with wife Alma who, despite unwavering faith in and support of her husband, sparks his jealousy as she works on a separate project with her charming though seemingly talentless friend Whitfield Cook.
Anthony Hopkins, as the great man Alfred Hitchcock, pulls off the prosthetic stomach as if he’s done it before. Although the wobbling jowls and gravelly voice threatened to irritate, I found myself empathising more and more with Hitch. A scene in which he elicits the screams of the first audience of Psycho had me grinning at his sheer delight and triumph. We also get to see below the surface into Hitch’s sometimes morbid and troubled mind as he is visited by visions of the killer on whom Psycho is based and suffers something of a breakdown.
Being a feminist at heart, I enjoyed the strength, wit and take-no-bullshit attitude brought to Alma Reville (Hitch’s wife) by Helen Mirren. She is as much the protagonist as Hitchcock himself: a smart, talented woman who goes to such lengths as mortgaging the house to provide independent funding for the film. She also works tirelessly on the screenplay, production and, when the first cut falls flat, the re-editing that made Psycho into a box-office smash hit.
Hitchock is neither an action thriller nor a laugh-a-minute comedy, but an interesting and entertaining biopic with some great performances from its leads. Now all that’s left to do is for me to summon the courage to watch Psycho…
4/5