Review for The Girl

The Girl is the story of how legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) discovered Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) casting her in one of his greatest movies: The Birds. The reason for hiring her was more than just professional, but Hitchcock had a sexual obsession with Hedren which Hedren fought against during their work together on The Birds and the subsequent film Marnie. The film shows Hitchcock discover and also destroy the career of Hedren once his advances had been spurned.

Within the film, we see Hedren's discovery and signing to an exclusive contract to work for Hitchcock. Her work in The Birds includes a horrific five day shoot of the 'bird attack' scene which saw Hedren have live birds thrown at her which attacked her for real and almost took her eye out. Finishing this movie, which was a huge critical and commercial success, she was cast in Hitchcock's next film Marnie. It was during the production of this film that Hitchcock's advances to Hedren went beyond just innuendo and awful sexual-themed limericks. Due to this Hedren declines his sexual advances and Hitchcock decides to keep her under contract (so she could not work for anyone else) and effectively destroyed her career.

This film is odd in that the tone is a little difficult to come to terms with. On one hand it is a very effective biography of this period. It shows Hitchcock, riding the waves of Psycho at his creative apex, however it also shows him as a rather sleazy sexual predator looking to use his power to get what he wants. It is difficult to assess the story when only one of the party (Hedren) is still alive and though she says it is more or less accurate, many of Hitchcock's family and supporters claim it is mostly fabricated. If you are an admirer of Hitchcock's work or the man himself watching this may change that opinion, for the worse.

Toby Jones' portrayal of Hitchcock is astounding and though at times he looks like someone in makeup, the transformation in a number of scenes is startling. Sienna Miller is amazing as Hedren recreations of some of The Birds and Marnie's scenes look so eerily similar you would swear you watching the originals. It is a shame that you cannot watch a side by side comparison to see how close they are, but if you have the time it is interesting to look up these two films and see just how bang on they got it. Supporting performances by Imelda Staunton as Hitchcock's wife and Penelope Wilton as his put upon assistant are both wonderful, though I do wish more had been made of Staunton.

The DVD unfortunately only contains a behind the scenes thing, which is fine and a photo gallery which reenacts some of the classic promo shots from The Birds and others between Hedren and Hitchcock.

The Girl is a film that if you are a fan of Hitchcock I would stay away from. There is nothing worse than discovering that someone you admired and respected could act in such a way, and if he did then you might not enjoy watching anything he ever created again. Which when you consider how many classic films he made would be a shame. However, if you do want to see two wonderful performances that do not lean into mimickery like many biographies then this is certainly one to watch.