|
|
|
Psycho
**1/2
Cinema
Releases - January 8, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Written by Joseph Stefano for the 1960
film "Psycho", based upon the novel by Robert Bloch. Starring Vince Vaughn,
Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, Robert Forster,
Philip Baker Hall, Anne Haney.
Gus Van Sant's
"Psycho", or "Psycho '99", as I call it, has a beautiful concept
-- a shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitckcock's stunning 1960 film "Psycho".
What Hitchcock had most enjoyed doing to "Psycho" audiences was "playing
them like an organ". Van Sant's plan is to go in another direction and play
with film itself.
The beauty of the concept is in experimental terms,
at least for anybody who has a large knowledge and love of cinema. Imagine
dubbed versions of Kevin Smith's "Clerks" or Martin Scorsese's "GoodFellas"
with the dialogue free of profanity and spoken in stately English accents.
Or a version of "12 Angry Men" where all clothes have been digitally removed.
It wouldn't be art, but it would be cute.
That's what I was hoping to get from "Psycho '99".
It goes without saying that it will not stand up as a film in its own right,
and should not, under any circumstances, be seen a substitute for the original.
But the idea has still been a controversial one, with some of the silliest
objections to the film protesting at how outrageous it is to remake "Psycho"
-- that it's impossible to capture that genius in a remake. Obviously, a
director like Van Sant isn't stupid enough to think a remake would capture
Hitchcock's genius, and certainly not through anything as methodical as a
shot-by-shot remake.
However, even after accepting this, it must be
said that the film still has problems -- it is not cute, at least not as
often as it should be, and while it got a fair amount of knowing smiles out
of me, it also got me fairly annoyed.
Perhaps the problem is that Van Sant is a director
who likes to work with his actors through the reality of the set once he's
decided on his camera angle. As a director, I can never work like this. When
I can, I look at a monitor, not at the set, because I have to see how it's
working on camera -- the audience looks at the screen, they don't visit the
set. If only Van Sant shared my compulsion, because he could have stayed
closer to the original, and made this a fair test. It isn't, because it often
strays far off being a shot-by-shot remake.
I don't know "Psycho" off by heart, and the last
time I saw it was about two months ago, but I still noticed a lot of distracting
differences in the alleged carbon copy. For example, the opening scene, where
Marion and Sam are in the motel room together, is one of the many that seems
to be framed and cut totally differently, with a different feel. The playful
nature of the scene's dialogue is also gone, as is Sam's remark about "turning
mother's picture to the wall, sending sister off to the movies...". The tone
of all the scenes in Marion's office, as well of the characters of her co-worker,
her boss and Mr. Cassidy, are all changed so much that they don't make any
sense. They also establish a problem that is prevalent throughout the entire
picture -- exaggeration and over-expression of points that are already made
clear enough through the words of the dialogue. Similar problems continue
when Marion goes to the car dealership. In 1960 John Anderson's salesman
was joking at being angry, and Marion revealed her tension and paranoia by
taking him so seriously. Here in 1999, with James Le Gros playing the man
as a raving mad grumpy bastard, it seems perfectly natural for Marion to
seem nervous.
Things don't get any better in the Bates Motel.
The most important scene between Norman and Marion, where the conversation
gets intense, no longer borders dangerously between discussion and argument,
but suddenly turns into a shouting match with orchestras blaring, followed
by an equally abrupt return to cordiality. And bizarrely, Van Sant's little
additions include a scene where Norman masturbates while watching Marion
through the hole in the wall.
I didn't expect the film to do what Hitchcock's
did -- have skill and control over tiny inconsistencies and oddities to play
with our mind, making us ask questions like: "Is Marion supposed to be sinister
or normal?" "Is Norman?" "Where's this going?" "Is there some secret about
Mother?" "Am I imagining that?" "Why did I think that?"
What I did expect, and I know I'm repeating myself,
was for "Psycho '99" to be a fair test. To stick to the rigid confines of
the shot-by-shot promise, and, with an intriguing style, show that genius
cannot be transferred by mimicking. It would have succeeded, if Van Sant
hadn't been so lazy as to only stick to Hitchcock's shots when he could be
bothered and allow himself to direct the actors with complete incompetence
of tone.
Anne Heche is not right for the Marion Crane role.
She doesn't have enough presence to con us into thinking she's the lead,
as Janet Leigh did, and she's also just too normal, when the role requires
ambiguity, the ability to be suspicious and yet sympathetic. From today's
actresses, better people to play the role would include Sharon Stone, Catherine
McCormack and Kim Basinger. Perhaps Heche could have even switched roles
with Julianne Moore, who is equally inappropriately cast as her sister. Lila
is no longer concerned and determined, as much as she is a nosy and arrogant
little bitch. For no reason at all, by the way, the film makes her a die-hard
mosher with silly headphones, an ugly backpack and baggy tracksuit pants.
Viggo Mortensen seems simply creepy as Sam, playing him as a nymphomaniac
hick. James Remar shines in the small role of highway patrolman, but of the
principal cast William H. Macy's performance is the most similar to the original,
as well as the most convincing. Ironically, Macy was the only lead not to
study his 1960 counterpart's performance before shooting.
As Norman Bates, Vince Vaughn handles most of
the straight dialogue perfectly. He plays Norman as a much more immature
kid than Anthony Perkins did, but gets some essential points nailed -- the
nervous manner and laugh, the awareness, the charming simplicity, the stance,
the relentless chewing of candy. Unfortunately, while Anthony Perkins was
able to ease into creepy mode, Vaughn just goes off the rails. One minute
he's the boy next door, then his eyes pop out and his voice gets angry. (To
be fair, that's somewhat of an exaggeration, but he still seems to obviously
odd for us to take him seriously, and there's no sense of danger. A pity,
because Vaughn often gets close to delivering a wonderful
performance.)
Cleverly, as Hitchcock's early-60s film displayed
naff early-50s fashions to give the feel of a cheap B-movie, Van Sant's 90s
work shows off colourful 70s costume and production design to give the feel
of slasher and exploitation flicks. But it is only clever in that it is
perceptive to what Hitch did. Here, with the vibrant colour photography,
we find ourselves getting caught up in the style, and so instead of atmosphere
being added, all that happens is attention being detracted. Perhaps they
should have recreated the period of the original film.
Gus Van Sant made one of the best films of recent
years, "Good Will Hunting", as well as several other films I consider it
a privilege to have seen, like "Drugstore Cowboy". He has worked hard to
make difficult subjects into fascinating and popular entertainment, and I
guess that halfway through "Psycho '99" he decided he needed a rest. Bad
timing, since people were waiting to jump on this movie if it was anything
less than very good. Remember the experiments I proposed for "Clerks",
"GoodFellas" and "12 Angry Men"? Imagine if in the first two they couldn't
keep up the act, and let some four-letter words in, or in the latter the
visual effects people decided to cut their workload down by zooming in on
the men's faces. You'll have a good idea of what to expect
here.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
1999 Reviews
(alphabetical)
1999 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)