Undated Film Still Handout from Hitchcock. Pictured: Helen Mirren as Alma Reville, Sir Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchock, Toni Collette as Peggy Robertson. See PA Feature FILM Mirren. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/20th Century Fox. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Mirren.

An Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Anthony Hopkins which focuses on the making of Psycho always sounded like an intriguing movie to me.

Upon originally seeing the trailer I thought this looked like a genuinely great movie and whilst it didn’t live up to the hype for me personally, Hitchcock is certainly a movie that I can recommend.

The only aspect of this film that I can really criticize is the fact that the film decides to focus more on the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma (who is portrayed brilliantly by Helen Mirren) whilst Psycho just so happens to be in the making behind this, dare I say soap opera plotline. To be honest I can’t really criticize the film for this as I went into this film only knowing what the trailer had showed me and that happens to be the emphasise on Psycho’s production history. As a movie buff that regards Psycho to be one of the best films of all time, it was an insightful watch but I was just hoping for that slight bit more when it came to the making of the film, however nonetheless I still really enjoyed Hitchcock.

If you genuinely have a love for cinema or you’re interested in either Alfred Hitchcock or Psycho then this is a very interesting movie. To me it’s a visualization of what I’ve previously read about the making of the film and to see it come to life on the big screen is as I said very interesting.

Taking into consideration that the film is a period movie it’s exceptionally well done. The sets of the film, the outfits etc. are all very detailed which is just a showcase of the hard work that has been put into this movie. It’s rather blatant that director Sacha Gervasi is a Hitchcock fan from the overall detail this movie gives you and judging from my own research it’s a very accurate movie.

To me the thing that makes Hitchcock work so well is that it all comes down to the acting and without the great performances from the ensemble cast, most noticeably Anthony Hopkins, I highly doubt Hitchcock would be nothing more than a pretty good drama that would be airing on the BBC, but due to its very well selected cast I feel it was definitely deserving of one or two nods in the best actor/actress categories.

The ensemble cast includes the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston and Jessica Biel so from the off its fairly straightforward that there are some big names attached to this film and whilst they all do a splendid job as you can imagine Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins are exceptional in the two leading roles. The two definitely deserve some recognition for their performances and rightfully so, as although this may sound incredibly cheesy at times I actually forgot I was watching Anthony Hopkins and that’s not due to the heavy make-up that’s been applied to him either. The man has certainly immersed himself in the role and everything he does showcases the characteristics of Hitchcock almost perfectly and although I personally know very little about the character of Hitchcock’s wife, Helen Mirren is equally as good and might I add the two veterans have a great sense of chemistry on set.

Whilst it hasn’t picked up best picture nominations, Hitchcock deserves to be recognised for its two performances courtesy of Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins, but despite the excellent performances on show it still manages to be a really good film.

7/10

Release Date: 8th February 2013 (UK)

JBool