Whenever an iconic actor takes on an iconic real-life figure as their next role, the film that they do it in tends to be guaranteed a certain amount of hype. Questions of how much they were made to look like them and how much they ended up sounding like them are the first things that cross everyone’s minds, so we all run out and gobble up those initial trailers. That’s likely to be the case for this new trailer for Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, as well, because it features acting legend Anthony Hopkins portraying directing legend Alfred Hitchcock.
How is Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock? Is he doing an impression of him, or kind of doing his own thing? Does his jowl makeup look believable? Luckily for us, the answers to all of these questions are contained here in this trailer, so our curiosity can be sated. When Hopkins is in the makeup, yes, he looks quite a bit like Hitchcock. He seems to be mimicking his mannerisms pretty broadly, but there’s also quite a bit of his own voice coming through in his performance. In a movie like this, where one celebrity plays another celebrity, complete with makeup and wardrobe, there’s always the possibility that after a while the whole thing will start to feel like an overly long SNL sketch and get ridiculous, but Hitchcock passes the initial sniff test.
The real story here might not be Hopkins’ performance, however. Hitchcock, in this narrative, seems to be more a creative force of nature, the engine behind the momentum of the plot, than he is the protagonist. It’s really Helen Mirren as Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville, who’s experiencing all the conflict and getting the human story. That means, that while Hopkins doing Hitchcock is going to be the thing that gets everybody’s eyeballs on this movie (well, that and all the gags about how big Scarlett Johansson’s boobs are), it’s likely going to be Helen Mirren’s performance that’s going to decide whether or not it’s successful. And, this being Helen Mirren, that means its success is pretty dang likely.
Hitchcock is in theaters starting November 23. [Apple]