( CNN ) -- Alfred Hitchcock , one of the most famous film directors in the world , has re-emerged into the zeitgeist this year . In August , Hitchcock 's `` Vertigo '' displaced `` Citizen Kane '' from its perch at the top of the prestigious Sight & Sound list of the greatest films ever made . There also had been renewed interest in `` Psycho '' on its 50th anniversary two years ago as well as the release of shiny new Blu-ray packages of his films . But not all the attention has been flattering . In September , HBO 's film `` The Girl '' dramatized Tippi Hedren 's behind-the-scenes horror stories from the making of `` The Birds '' ( 1963 ) . According to the movie , Hitchcock was obsessed with his protege and sexually abusive . And now comes `` Hitchcock , '' an Oscar wannabe scripted by John J. McLauglin ( `` Black Swan '' ) and directed by Sacha Gervasi ( `` Anvil '' ) , with Anthony Hopkins as the portly English master of suspense and Scarlett Johansson ( very good ) as `` Psycho '' star Janet Leigh . ( By the way , Hitch never won an Academy Award -- until the academy sheepishly coughed up a lifetime achievement consolation prize . ) The movie begins , not unpromisingly , with Ed Gein murdering his older brother and Hitchcock stepping in to the frame to deliver one of his mordantly witty teasers . It 's a cute joke , but it soon turns sour in facile scenes featuring the tormented and delusional Hitch confiding to an imaginary Gein , presented here as a soul mate , confessor and psychiatrist all rolled into one . It 's a terrible idea , and all the more insidious because of the casting : Hopkins ' most famous role remains Hannibal Lecter , and `` The Silence of the Lambs '' was influenced by Gein 's macabre penchant for taxidermy . Certainly , one of the things that makes `` Psycho '' such a great film is that it takes this monstrous , deviant figure , Norman Bates , and forges a human connection , a slender cord of attraction and empathy between him and Leigh 's character , Marion Crane . For all his eccentricity , Anthony Perkins plays Norman as a sensitive , vulnerable , even kindly soul , at the mercy of compulsions he does not comprehend or control . Hitchcock , through his art , humanized a monster . `` Hitchcock , '' on the other hand , chooses to demonize the artist , finding something suspect and distasteful in his pursuit of the Gein story -- itself turned into a kind of obsession -- even as it plays the studio head 's dismay for self-congratulatory laughs and cannibalizes Hollywood history . In the most ludicrous scene , the director loses all self-control while wielding a prop knife in the vicinity of a naked Leigh ( no matter that the famous shower scene employed a body double ) . While Hopkins ' fearful , arrogant , rather pathetic Hitchcock seizes on `` Psycho '' to persuade himself he 's not over the hill ( after all , in the previous five years he only had `` Rear Window , '' `` Vertigo , '' `` North by Northwest '' and `` The Wrong Man '' and a couple more masterpieces to his name ) , his long-suffering wife , Alma Reville ( Helen Mirren ) , watches from the sidelines as he mortgages their home , flirts with Leigh -- his latest blonde -- and pushes back the standards of taste and decency in American cultural life . Alma is indulgent , but only up to a point . She permits herself to embark on a collaboration with a gallant writer friend ( Danny Huston ) , a gesture of artistic independence that Hitch perceives as infidelity , tantamount to adultery . Mirren 's pursed , patient , discreet Alma is the real hero of this story . She is not just her husband 's sounding board but also his best ( uncredited ) co-writer , his ( uncredited ) editor and even his ( uncredited ) co-director . There is probably some sliver of truth to this , but `` Hitchcock '' plays so fast and loose with the facts it 's highly unreliable . And in championing the overlooked Alma , it not only denigrates Hitchcock 's reputation but it also slights his many other collaborators , too , including the work of author Robert Bloch , editor George Tomasini and composer Bernard Herrmann . What 's worse , this mild , mediocre act of feminist revisionism seems oblivious to the very real , enduring and profound power of `` Psycho , '' which is so much more than just an effective scare machine . If you really want to see an honest movie about Hitchcock 's troubled , fetishistic , conflicted , love-hate relationship with women , see `` Psycho , '' `` Vertigo , '' `` Marnie '' or `` Notorious '' -- it 's a film he made over and over again his whole life , and better than anyone else ever will .
Alma Reville stars as the famous director Hitchcock . Helen Mirren plays Alma Reville 's long-suffering wife , Hitchcock . Alma is the true hero of the story , according to the critic . `` The Silence of the Lambs '' chooses to demonize the artist , he says .