Review: Hitchcock (2012) thinks you can't handle the truth.

Hitchcock

2012

95 minutes

rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

It is telling that the opening frames of Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock don't even give us the usual 'based on a true story' text as its allegedly non-fiction story begins.  It's the only honest moment of the entire picture, which is so gloriously full of shit that it can't bear to even pretend that the story it's presenting is remotely truthful.  Technically based on Stephen Rebello's 1990 book, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the film alters history, dilutes the contributions of talented individuals, commits outright libel against others, while basically ignoring its central subject (the, um, making of Psycho) in favor of a contrived would-be romantic conflict between Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).  Worse yet, the story is told in broad, on-the-nose strokes that resembles the kind of writing found in bad childrens' cartoons and the picture revolves around hindsight-superiority that renders it potently obnoxious.  It plays less as an adult drama and more like a Hitchcock biography blandly written for first-graders.

First look at Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock.

I wrote a piece last month detailing ten films I was eagerly anticipating post-Dark Knight Rises.  Had I waited just a few weeks, I damn-well would have included Fox Searchlight's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (or Hitchcock, as its allegedly been renamed).  The film is an adaption of the Stephen Rebello book detailing um... Alfred Hitchcock's making of Psycho back in 1960.  It's a fascinating bit of old-school film history, and its lined-up one of the coolest casts in recent memory.  You've got Anthony Hopkins as the 'master of suspense' himself and Helen Mirren as his wife.  You've got Scarlett Johansson (as Janet Leigh), Jessica Biel (Vera Miles), Toni Collette (Peggy Robertson), Danny Huston (Whitfield Cook), Kurtwood Smith (Geoffrey Shurlock), and James D'Arcy (as Anthony Perkins).  And that's not including my two favorite bits of inspired casting.  Aside from the much-appreciated hiring of Michael Wincott to play infamous serial murderer Ed Gein (essay), they've also brought on Ralph Macchio as Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano (no word yet if the author of the novel Psycho, Robert Bloch, will show up). Wincott and Macchio are both highly under-appreciated actors who have struggled to get steady work over the last decade, and neither of 'obvious choices'.  The film has no release date as of yet, but it's easily one of Mendelson's Memos' most anticipated films over the next couple years.

Scott Mendelson

Because the twist was beside the point... What those who've ripped off The Sixth Sense over the last twelve years have gotten wrong about its finale.

With Dream House opening today, sans press screenings, audiences will get a chance to discover, if they choose, just how much of the film has been spoiled by the trailer.  Early reviews indicate that the movie is both stunningly boring and basically a hodge-podge of classic twist ending cliches.  While it's fashionable to blame The Sixth Sense for the last ten years of last-minute 'gotchas!', the would-be thrillers that have followed in M. Night Shyamalan's footsteps missed a crucial distinction.  The last minute reveal that closes The Sixth Sense isn't really the finale of the film.  It's not a big zinger that the entire movie revolves around.  The movie, at its core, is a human drama about a troubled young boy and his struggling single mother.  With painfully good work by Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette (both of whom damn-well should have won Oscars) and a genuinely sympathetic and thoughtful screenplay by M. Night in his prime, the climactic reveal, and really all of the supernatural material is merely a means to an end.  It is, to paraphrase one of the film's last lines, always second to the heartbreaking human drama.  The movie doesn't climax with the revelation about Bruce Willis's ultimate fate.  It truly climaxes one scene earlier, as mother and son finally open up to each other and reach an understanding that will truly strengthen their relationship.  The emphasis on character over thrills and chills is among a handful of reasons why The Sixth Sense is still a masterpiece and one of the best films of the 1990s.  The scene above, the true finale to The Sixth Sense, is probably the best thing M. Night Shyamalan has ever filmed, and it is one of the main reasons I still haven't given up on him.

Scott Mendelson