Hitchcock (2012)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Alfred Hitchcock	Anthony Hopkins	½
Alma Reville	Helen Mirren
Janet Leigh	Scarlett Johansson
Whitfield Cook	Danny Huston	½
Peggy Robertson	Toni Collette
Lew Wasserman	Michael Stuhlbarg
Ed Gein	Michael Wincott
Vera Miles	Jessica Biel
Anthony Perkins	James D'Arcy
Barney Balaban	Richard Portnow
Geoffrey Shurlock	Kurtwood Smith
Joseph Stephano	Ralph Macchio

Review

Anthony Hopkins chooses a mimicry approach to his rendition of Alfred Hitchcock, and the filmmakers certainly cannot hide their awe for their title character and what was arguably the final days of the classical Hollywood era. Still, this is a very enjoyable and well-rounded film, especially for movie buffs, of course. The script, by John J. McLaughlin, adapted from Stephen Rebello's book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho", scratches the surface of many sides of Hitchcock and his marriage that are more or less common knowledge. And even if the film cannot (and probably should not try to) go really in depth of these sides, there's enough vibrancy in director Sacha Gervasi's handling of them and Hopkins' and Helen Mirren's portrayal to create and maintain interest. It is Mirren's performance as Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville that is the most important and weight-carrying (no pun intended) for Hitchcock, while other potentially interesting roles are so miniscule (Macchio as Joe Stephano, James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins) that one gets the impression that this project was intended to be more comprehensive than the producers accepted. Hitchcock is by no means a definitive account of The Master of Suspense, but it's a good start.