This is a bit of a cheat since it aired on television, but HBO’s The Girl feels enough like a real movie to warrant a review. It has at least two recognizable stars (Sienna Miller, Toby Jones), and a biographical story (about Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession with actress Tippi Hedren, his star in The Birds and Marnie) that isn’t a total, Liz-and-Dick-style disgrace.
What Works: How true is any of this? I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. Whereas the Hitchcock in theaters (where Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred as he tries to make Psycho) is more of a comedy/drama that portrays “Hitch” as a slightly goofy, mostly affable guy, this movie portrays Hitchcock as a psychosexually obsessive filmmaker, someone who could touch on our fears so well because they have all but taken over him. His “love” of Tippi is deeply uncomfortable but weirdly fascinating, and I can’t help but think that gets us further inside the head of this man than anything else could.
Tippi is never more than a blank canvas, she’s pretty but mostly-uninteresting, but her face (seen in enlarged, glamorous close-ups) serves as a metaphor for a director’s passion. What she lacks in substance is almost exactly the point, Hitch falls “in love” with her because he can project whatever he wants onto her gorgeous, shallow features, directing and manipulating his passions just like he would a film.
What Doesn’t Work: Is this entirely accurate? I’m not so sure. Toby Jones is the right actor to make Hitchcock unsympathetic, a leering and resentful obsessive with a professional cover for his obsession, but does he overdo it for the sake of the narrative? I’m not so sure the real Hitchcock didn’t have a little more going on than this. The film works as a creeping psychological thriller but not so much as biography.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I would have loved one great, standout scene between Alma Hitchcock and her husband, where she finally reveals how she feels about the whole thing. As it stands, she’s largely kept at arm’s length.