RBR: Hitchcock

During Oscar season, there was surprisingly very little discussion about this film, which features previous Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren and is based on one of the most famous Hollywood directors of all time. It turns out that the reason for the lack of buzz is quite simple. Despite its pedigree, this is a rather pedestrian effort. Hitchcock plays more like a made-for-TV movie that just got lucky in scoring an incredible cast. The film focuses on the noted director's effort to make Psycho. On the way to making his most successful film, he faced several roadblocks including a lack of studio support, protest from the ratings board, and a wife, who's become frustrated with a lack of recognition for her collaborative efforts in his success. A lot of these problems seem rather interesting and yet the film opts to merely gloss over a lot of them for more melodramatic moments dealing with a possible affair between Hitchcock's wife (Mirren) and a charming writer (Danny Huston). I'm far from an expert on Hitchcock and his film and yet I felt like this film didn't really reveal anything that I didn't already know or suspect about his work. The two leads turns in excellent performance, as expected but they are working with substandard material here. Fans of the late director will no doubt be disappointed in this less than revelatory film and younger fans will likely struggle to stay engaged in this story. It's a shame that a film based on a master of suspense is filled with very few surprises. Rating: ** 1/2