Hitchcock – first look review | Film | guardian.co.uk

Hitchcock – first look review | Film | guardian.co.uk:

From our favorite Hitch hometown paper, on the occasion of the screening of Hitchcock at the AFI Fest.

The device that speeds along the estrangement of the partnership is the movie's weakest invention, a screenwriting project with another writer (Danny Huston), a fool and a hack in Hitch's eyes. But one should treat that like a McGuffin – a plot engine – forget that the middle section sags a little, and enjoy the ride. The making of Psycho is depicted in detail without our seeing one frame of the completed movie. The closest we come is when Hitchcock stands in the lobby outside the premiere, faux-conducting Bernard Hermann's slashing violins; he has a combination of a maestro's manual flourishes and a murderer's manic stabbing motions as the audience inside wails and howls its way through the shower scene. It's a magnificent moment for anyone who can blink-sync their way through those infamous 45 seconds, and beautifully brought off by Hopkins, who hasn't had this much fun in years.

All the smaller roles are neatly filled, particularly Scarlett Johansson's Leigh and James Darcy's Tony Perkins, the latter almost eerily resembling the original; plus Kurtwood Smith as the fuming head of the censor's office and Ralph Macchio as screenwriter Joseph Stephano.