Hitchcock

Directed by Sacha Gervasi

(PG-13)

**

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Hitchcock may suit you “if all you want is to while away the afternoon in the company of some excellent actors,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. But “cinephiles seeking a bold new take” on master director Alfred Hitchcock will be disappointed by this “pleasant but unambitious” biopic, which focuses on a turning point in Hitchcock’s career—when, after years of critical success, he took a risk by making the horror film Psycho. Even under a thick layer of latex, Anthony Hopkins “doesn’t look all that much like the real Hitch,” said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. But he and Helen Mirren, playing Hitch’s wife and frequent collaborator, “create a vital portrait of a unique showbiz marriage” in this intriguing slice of cinematic history, when the couple bet their own fortune on a daring vision. Unfortunately, the Hitchcocks and their professional challenges were “not especially interesting,” said Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. This film labors to portray the great director as a complex character, but “he so lived for his work that he does not fascinate on the screen.”