Hitchcock

After the success of North by Northwest, eccentric 60-year-old director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) turned his creative attention to Robert Bloch's novel Psycho, determined to make something entirely different. Inspired by the brutal serial murders committed by psychopath Ed Gein, Psycho was an unconventional property that no one was willing to bank on, including Paramount Pictures. So Hitch mortgaged his house and funded the film himself, taking a financial risk that infuriated his collaborative writer/film editor wife, Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), who in turn embarked on her own project with an ambitious young screenwriter, Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston), which aroused her husband's jealousy. Propelling the Hitchcocks' marital strife was his obsessive infatuation with a succession of svelte, blonde leading ladies, including Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, Tippi Hedren, Vera Miles and, now, Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson). Adapting Stephen Rebello's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, director Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock chronicles the birth of the complex and controversial horror classic Psycho, up through its 1960 premiere. Hopkins brilliantly captures Hitchcock's distinctive look (the film scored an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup) and dry, droll manner, while Golden Globe nominee Mirren adroitly encapsulates the inner conflict of the intensely creative woman who was constantly relegated to a supportive role. Recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Sacha Gervasi and author Stephen Rebello, an “Obsessed with Hitchcock” making-of featurette (30 min.), a “Becoming the Master: From Hopkins to Hitchcock” featurette on star Anthony Hopkins (13 min.), “Sacha Gervasi's Behind-the-Scenes Cell Phone Footage” segments (13 min.), “Remembering Hitchcock” (5 min.), production featurettes on “The Cast” (5 min.) and “The Story” (3 min.), “Hitch and Alma” (3 min.), a deleted scene (2 min.), “Danny Elfman Maestro” on the score (2 min.), a brief “Hitchcock Cell Phone PSA,” trailers, and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a solid Hollywood backstage story.] (S. Granger)