Picks and Pans Review: Psycho Therapy Was Hitch Nuts?

>You’ll hear about Hitchcock at Oscar time, given Anthony Hopkins’s fine turn as the great director and Helen Mirren’s fantastic performance as his wife and creative partner, Alma. But the film isn’t as sure-footed as its cast. The action ostensibly follows the making of Psycho but goes off the rails on two fronts: Alma’s writing project with pal and Strangers on a Train scribe Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) and bizarre interludes in which Hitch imagines he’s talking to Ed Gein, the killer who inspired Psycho’s Norman Bates. Sadly, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel don’t get much time to show off how adroitly they transform into Janet Leigh and Vera Miles, respectively, but at least Alma gets her due. []