HBO’S THE GIRL – HITCHCOCK VS TIPPI HEDREN

Post Date: 20.10.12

Alfred Hitchock’s obsession for Tippi Hedren was put under the spotlight in superb HBO drama The Girl last night, this was very much a warts and all portrayal of Hitchcock, who – played here by Toby Jones in fine style – does not come out of proceedings very well.

As Enterment Weekly reports

Jones, so amazing as Truman Capote in 2006′s Infamous, nearly equaled that feat of impersonation playing Hitchcock in The Girl. And Sienna Miller was this movie’s title character, a “girl” in her early 30s whom the director snatched from obscurity, and Miller plays Hedren with skillful woodenness — it’s an excellent performance, portraying a mediocre actress so well.

The plot of The Girl is an audience-divider: Anyone familiar with Hitchcock’s work doubtless knew every beat of this story, while newcomers to his work may have found it a glossy example of a TV-movie sub-genre: the didactic lesson-film. Screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes was posed with such a daunting challenge, it’s a wonder she even attempted this. But, working mostly from Donald Spoto’s book Spellbound By Beauty, Hughes, an excellent writer (Five Days), did her best. The tale The Girl tells is fundamentally simple and too simplistic: It depicted a control-freak director who falls for a beautiful woman, promises her stardom, preys upon her financial insecurity, makes a pass at her, is rejected, and submits her to cruel punishments in the guise of control-freaky directing methods.

In the End though The Girl is a must see production, a biting glimpse into the Hollywood machine and the mind of one of it’s most creative directors. Hitchcock of course made a habit of putting his leading ladies on a pedestal right from the very beginning of his career.

Source: Entertainment Weekly