Popcorn Reviews With Cybèle: Psycho

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

First  published in the Shelburne News, Shelburne Vermont

Popcorn Kernel Rating (four possible): 2.75 Kernels for a strong beginning.

Movie fans are legion for whining about remakes. Part of the reason is that the love and care put into original films is often missing in remakes. Some people feel that original art shouldn’t be remolded and remade (I personally feel this way about Led Zeppelin songs). But here’s the thing. As much as I like Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (one of my all time favorites), she is still an actress of another age, a stylish icon. I can relate better to an actress of my generation, so it’s natural that I might prefer Laura Dern in the day-to-day movie experience. As much as I love Gaslight, the relaxed pacing and zig zagular conversational format of older classic films embody a different world from the tight pacing and editing of 1990’s films. Lastly, black and white is all well and good, but for a contemporary film viewer, it’s distracting. Let’s face it, I’m a nineties girl with nineties taste.

So then why a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a masterpiece of the cinema? You probably would have to ask Director Gus Van Sant (who also directed Good Will Hunting, To Die For, My Own Private Idaho, and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues) about this, but I imagine it’s for some of the same reasons that I stated. But Van Sant went one step further; he made a shot by shot remake, a tip of the hat to Hitchcock. This in itself is an original idea. So, yes the movie features contemporary actors and color, but is it something that adds anything to the pot? For young viewers who will never see the original Psycho, it’s a worthwhile endeavor. For the rest of us, the film is a charming distraction but little else.

The good parts are these. The first half hour is well wrought, with a nice level of tension. The second half is more or less as cumbersome and lacking in focus as the original, so Van Sant shouldn’t be penalized. The ending was an exercise in stupidity, but then that too was in the original. The only noticeable difference in this remake is a slightly higher level of sexual allusion. For example, there is a scene where Norman Bates (Vince Vaughn) is watching Marion Crane (Anne Heche) through a peephole and playing the five fingered flute. There is no doubt in my mind that the latter part there did NOT happen in the original. Too crass. There is slightly more nudity as well, but nothing noticeable (which is really too bad since I like Vaughn)

Vince Vaughn is an actor who has a deadwood face like Keanu Reaves, so we expect little from him besides bland good looks. You’d be wrong about that though, because beneath his still smile run turbulent waters. You can check Vince out in A Cool Dry Place, and Return to Paradise – which he also worked with Anne Heche, both films which I rated highly. Anne Heche also brought in a strong performance. I note their performances because they are so very different than the ones in Return to Paradise, an excellent film in which they also worked together.

Suggested Gustatory Accompaniment: Bologna and white bread sandwiches

Copyright 2000