PSYCHO (1998) (Universal) Starring: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy. Screenplay: Joseph Stefano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch. Producers: Brian Grazer and Gus Van Sant. Director: Gus Van Sant. MPAA Rating: R (violence, adult themes) Running Time: 104 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I'll admit that I didn't rent the original PSYCHO last night so I could make my shot-by-shot comparison with a fresh memory. I'm fairly certain Hitchcock didn't make it explicit that Master Bates was masturbating while watching Marion Crane disrobe, the opening helicopter shot was definitely new, and I can't recall near-subliminal shots of gathering storm clouds edited into the legendary "shower scene." Otherwise, everything appeared pretty consistent with my recollection. Director Gus Van Sant -- for reasons he has given anywhere from "why not remake a good film instead of a bad film?" to just plain "why not?" -- had indeed taken one of American cinema's most iconic horror films, dipped it in color, and served it up whole to a new generation of movie-goers.
The metronomic repetition of "why" is a bit futile at this point, but I'm willing to hazard my own guess as to the answer: Van Sant wanted to remind viewers what a brilliant director Alfred Hitchcock was, and what a brilliant example of direction PSYCHO was in particular. I hope viewers (and critics) don't fold their arms in indignation so tightly against their chests that they fail to recognize how incredibly suspenseful and tautly paced the first hour of this PSYCHO is. Beginning with the most famous red herring in film history -- the theft of $400,000 from a real estate office -- the story follows Marion Crane (Anne Heche) from Phoenix to California, where she makes an ill-fated stop at the Bates Motel. There she meets manager Norman Bates (Vince Vaughn), whose heart belongs to Mommy and whose cutlery has a way of finding itself imbedded in flesh.
Heretical though it may seem to say so, the first half of this PSYCHO is better than the original, because Heche's interpretation of Marion is better than Janet Leigh's. Her steadily mounting guilt and fear of discovery as she tries to bring the loot to her bankrupt boyfriend Sam (Viggo Mortensen) are palpable. The staging -- Hitch's ominous angles, Bernard Herrmann's chilling score -- masterfully builds the tension, but it also allows us watch Heche's mind work, and she's as fiercely intelligent an actress as we have today. While the narrative is focused on Marion's flight, it really flies.
Eventually, of course, Marion exits the film wrapped in a shower curtain, which leaves us with Norman and the snooping of Sam, Marion's concerned sister Lila (Julianne Moore) and private detective Arbogast (William H. Macy). It also leaves us with the PSYCHO's one huge problem: Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. There's nothing exactly wrong with Vaughn's performance, which is edgy and scary. Vaughn simply can't help the fact that physically, he is completely wrong for the role. Towering over every other actor in the piece, his good looks untamed by a bad haircut, Vaughn is far too physically intimidating to play the meek, sexually repressed basket case. He throws the entire second half of the film out of whack, leaving the audience with nothing to do but watch Van Sant and his cast play out the rest of the film.
There are any number of reasons why a PSYCHO nearly 40 years removed from the well-known original can't work quite as well. The shower scene is now a film-school standby as minutely dissected as the Zapruder film, not a viscerally shocking surprise; familiarity with the true nature of Norman's "mother" makes some of his dialogue unintentionally humorous. But there's no question that it does still work as an example of building terror through film-making skill. It also shows that the success of particular choices may be built around the casting. The best choice with Anthony Perkins as Norman does not equal the best choice with Vince Vaughn as Norman -- it's chaos theory at its finest applied to the art of directing. Gus Van Sant has honored the master (closing the film with a dedication to Hitchcock), but he hasn't duplicated him. This incarnation of PSYCHO isn't a forgery of a great work of art. It's more like a photo of a great work in an art history textbook -- a bit flat, but intriguing enough to make you want to get a better look at the real thing.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 shower caps: 6.
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