The first of two Alfred Hitchcock bio-dramas released within months of each other, The Girl is an interesting if not always compelling ‘portrait’ of the great filmmaker. While the upcoming big-screen biopic with Anthony Hopkins will look at the making of Psycho and the extent of his wife’s collaborative input, this made-for TV BBC/HBO co-production attempts to detail Hitchcock’s obsession with leading lady Tippi Hedren. Painting him as a petty, lecherous monster whose only redeeming quality was his talent, it’s often as chilling and disturbing as the man’s films (which is quite an accomplishment in itself), but not nearly as memorable.
While likely to appeal mostly to cinephiles and Hitchcock fans, the latter might find Hitch being dehumanised in such a way distasteful. Despite capturing the contradictory nature of his personality, it also feels a tad one-note. It plays out like this: Hedren rebuffs her director’s advances, he tortures her during filming, she takes it without breaking, and repeat. Still, Julian Jarrold’s period recreations are eerily accurate (the re-enactments of the telephone box attack and attic entrance from The Birds are among the film’s best) while Sienna Miller is surprisingly strong as Hedren.
As Hitchcock, the excellent Toby Jones does as well as he can (given how inimitable the legendary filmmaker was), while Imelda Staunton and Penelope Wilton stand out in support. So how much is true? Well on one hand, Gwyneth Hughes’ script is based on “extensive research” and interviews with Hitchcock’s cameramen (as well as the real Hedren’s claims that he did sexually harass her), while on the other it’s obvious that liberties were taken. If nothing else, it’s one final mystery from the man who liked to to keep us guessing…
