Hitchcock

Who better to portray Alfred Hitchcock than the wonderful Anthony Hopkins?

The title of the movie may not reflect it, but this is not a biography. The story is only that of getting the film Psycho, arguably the best Hitchcock film, made.

I don't know how much of it is actually true but I can believe that Hitchcock in fact was obsessive enough to have his people by every copy of the book Psycho that they could get their hands on, so that nobody would know the ending. Also, I am sure that his struggle to sell the story to the studio bosses and get certain scenes through the censors are well documented. But I am also pretty sure, that the director did not actually imagine hanging out with Ed Gein.

Aside from some doubts about the accuracy, the film is as entertaining as a film about the making of a film can be. The cast is superb, including besides Hopkins the wonderful Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, Kurtwood Smith, James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins (he is great) and The Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio.

Well worth watching.

7/10

A Long Way Down

Turns out Pierce Brosnan doesn't always annoy the hell out of me after all. I actually quite liked him in this. He still got way too much screen time (compared to the others) and I would have preferred more Toni Collette and Aaron Paul and less of him and Imogen Poots (whoever she is).

I vaguely remembered the story, as I had read Nick Hornby's book and very much enjoyed it at the time. The translation to screen was pretty decent, I thought. Sure, the book is better. It almost always is. And, yes, Toni Collette played the same role she did in About a Boy (Nick Hornby again and still suicidal). But I enjoyed myself anyway.

It helps that I loved Breaking Bad and - consequently pretty much anyone that was on it - appreciate Aaron Paul. So much so that it actually outweighed my dislike for Brosnan. I'm not sure I would have watched A Long Way Down with only Toni Collette tipping the scale. Lucky I did.

Another shortish review here, but that is really all I got.

6/10

Jesus Henry Christ

This is the story of Henry James Herman. Henry has an IQ of 310 (the second highest ever recorded) and remembers everything he has ever seen.

Before Henry was born, the family of his mother Patricia suffered several tragedies. First, on Patricia's 10th birthday her mother's dress catches fire and - as she is about to pat it out - Patricia's father Stan, in misguided effort to save his wife, throws the nearest liquid he can find on her. Unfortunately, it is alcohol.

Next, the twins Tim and Tom, now police officers, die in a ridiculous accident. James, the second youngest child, dies of AIDS shortly after Henry is born. The oldest, Billy, has left the US for Canada when Patricia was only 10 to dodge the draft.

Henry is born a test tube baby, something that he learns from his father Stan. When he is 10 he follows clues on Post It notes to find his biological father. This appears to be Dr. O'Hara, who has his own issues with his offspring. O'Hara published a book about his daughter Audrey, which made her her school's laughing stock. The girl, 12 at this point, is disgruntled and messed up and not necessarily happy to learn that she may have a younger brother.

O'Hara, Henry, Audrey and Patricia head to a clinic to take a paternity test. All of them. Audrey's mother left O'Hara for his oncologist, who talked O'Hara into donating sperm in the first place - as a security deposit. He suffered from testicular cancer at this point and chemotherapy may make it impossible for him to father more children. At the time he gets the news, his wife is very pregnant and greats the doctor in a way that suggests that the two are more than friends at this point already. Therefore, O'Hara is uncertain whether or not Audrey is his daughter.

Anyway, many complications and ridiculous situations spawn from this constellation. In the end, what is left of the family reunites at grandpa Stan's funeral and in the end it turns out that O'Hara is father to, both, Henry and Audrey.

Sweet and sentimental.

6/10