Hitchcock (2012)

Nominated for:  Best Make-up    This is really going to make me rethink my stance on character dramas.  I don't think that it should have gotten a nomination for make-up, especially not over Looper, but I really wish it had been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.  And Michael Wincott would have been my dark horse for Best Supporting Actor.  Holy Jesus.  He's only onscreen a few minutes total but he stole every scene he was in.

In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) was fresh off his success with North by Northwest but was struggling to find a new project.  He comes across the book Psycho, based on the crimes of murderer Ed Gein (Michael Wincott) and decides that's the picture he wants to make, despite his wife Alma's (Helen Mirren) exhortations to read her friend Whit's (Danny Huston) screenplay.  Paramount Studios refuses to finance the film, fearing it's a flop.  So Hitch mortgages his house and pours his own assets into it.  He soon finds the paranoia and base urges of the story seeping into his own life, as he begins to suspect Alma of having an affair with Whit. 

I can imagine that it's difficult to play someone who was actually alive, especially one with such an iconic image.  Anthony Hopkins is a great actor and he nails the speech cadence, but falls short of the voice and appearance.  A fatsuit will only take you so far.  Likewise, Scarlett Johansson doesn't look terribly like Janet Leigh, but she does try very hard to sound like her.  Of all of them, James D'Arcy was the only one who really owned his character.  He looked and sounded just like Anthony Perkins.  Jessica Biel doesn't look anything like Vera Miles and I'm a little confused as to what she's doing in this movie.  That could just be because I don't think she's a very good actress.