The Girl (2012 TV Movie) User Reviews (63)

fairly tedious

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 4 March 2013]

Despite wonderful performances by Toby Jones and Sienna Miller, "The Girl," purporting to be the story of Hitchcock's obsession with Tippi Hedren, was tough going.

I'm getting a little tired of reading on the message board that Tippi Hedren "needed the money." I guess I'm unclear as to how she's cashed in on this story. Did she write the book? The screenplay? She gets a "thanks" in the credits. I have a thanks on a film's credit and I didn't get a cent. If she acted as a consultant, I doubt for a TV movie it would help her wildlife preserve much.

Hitchcock fans know several things: filming "The Birds" was a miserable experience for Hedren; Alfred Hitchcock was a brilliant, complicated man who probably had some sexual hangups; and Alfred Hitchcock had fallen for other leading ladies. However, those leading ladies remained friends with him (Bergman and Kelly) so one wonders if the way he is depicted in this film is correct. If someone tried to ram his tongue down my throat or recited dirty limericks to me or asked me to touch him, I'd have gone running.

The screenplay was criticized by one of the people who worked on the film and was interviewed, so you already know it's sensationalized.

In this version, Hitchcock falls for Tippi Hedren and makes her life a living hell after she rejects him. I have no idea if this happened or not. Toby Jones has again proved his gifts as a mimic - his Hitchcock is perfection, just as his Capote was. Sienna Miller is beautiful and strangely resembles Janet Leigh in this film! She did a good job playing a vapid actress.

The problem with the film is that it's skewed toward Hedren instead of telling a story in a balanced manner. The second problem is that even at 90 minutes it's too long with scene after scene of Tippi sighing over her bad treatment or someone commiserating with her over her bad treatment and scene after scene of Hitchcock staring at her and then plotting another way to torture her.

I had the pleasure of transcribing interviews that Donald Spoto did on his important book on Alfred Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius. I can testify that he worked for years on this book and left no stone unturned. I remember one part of the book, where Hitchcock is through with Hedren as an actress, saying, "She did the unimaginable -- she mentioned my WEIGHT." They didn't get along, that's evident. Hitchcock here is presented as a sicko whack job. Were that the case, he wouldn't have had so many people -- so many women -- working with him over and over again, which they did.

I suggest to people that if they want to know the whole story that they read Spoto's two books, Spellbound, about Hitchcock and his leading ladies, and The Dark Side of Genius. He is given to psychobabble but believe me, it's more interesting material than this. And if any of this is in his writing, you can believe it.

We are to believe in this movie that Hitchcock was hurtful and insulting to everyone, that he tortured, threw himself at, and belittled Tippi Hedren to such an extent that she made a second film with him. Yeah, that's what I would have done.

I'm guessing there might be a little more to this story that would possibly not present Ms. Hedren in the best light. I admire her very much for her work on her wildlife preserve, and in interviews, she always comes across as a lovely woman. That doesn't mean she is as shown in this film.

Hitchcock had his demons. Somehow Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Teresa Wright, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, and Barbara Harris got through it. Granted, they didn't have birds attacking them. They did, however, admire the genius behind the films.

interesting movie that has generated disturbing criticisms

[cherold · 7/10 · 8 December 2012]

The Girl is an interesting movie about Hitchcock's obsession with Tippi Hedren as they made two movies together. It's stylishly made, with good performances. It is focused very much on Hitchcock's cruelty to Hedren.

My main objection to this movie is that its focus makes it rather unbalanced. Hedren herself says this. She says working with Hitchcock was great at first, and while the movie portrays her as dealing with one indignity after another, she says this was only really a problem toward the end of Marnie. It might have been interesting to see more of Hitchock's process - I liked the scene where he helps her work on her lines - but it's a short movie and they had a story to tell.

What is more interesting than the movie is its detractors here. While some people just don't find The Girl interesting, the vast majority seem to dislike it because they don't believe it. Some reviews will even say they're not invested in Hitchcock's reputation, but then follow it up by saying they don't believe this happened.

First off, the movie is based on information from a book by a respected biography writer, based on what he was told by both Hedren and those who worked with her. And Hitchcock was certainly a dark, obsessive, and sometimes cruel (witness his vicious "practical jokes") person. His movies are about obsessions and cruelty, so it would hardly be surprising if he acted poorly with his actress.

Yet, many of the movie's critics express outrage that Hitchcock's name is being besmirched. They say Hedren lied; that she is just trying to scapegoat Hitchcock for her lack of major successes after the Hitchcock films. They say she couldn't act. They say she should have been grateful that Hitchcock gave her a career.

There is a phrase I don't like, because it sounds extremist and harsh and overly politically correct, but that I increasingly realize accurately describes something, and that is "rape culture," the idea that sexual harassment and attacks on women are so ingrained in our society that they aren't even seen as abnormal. The reactions to this movie seem to me examples of this. What is the difference between saying Hedren lied about Hitchcock and the claims that a woman lies about being raped? What does her acting ability have to do with anything? (And what are people basing their assessment on? I suspect most of us have only seen her in two movies, made by a director who got exactly the performances he wanted from his actors).

Many people are saying,essentially, "he didn't do it, and if he did do it, she deserved it."

Look, I understand that people feel a need to defend great artists, but many great artists are not especially great people. That's inevitable; art often comes from a strange place. Don't attack the victim because you think the aggressor was a cool dude.

Alfie's Tippi

[mcnab-54953 · 7/10 · 17 March 2022]

Overall a decent film but lots of mistakes. All of the major scenes from The Birds only show one camera being used in one take. The phone booth scene, the attic scene for instance. One scene shows Hedren entering the upstairs bedroom already bloodied before she is attacked. The scene where she arrives at Mitch's with the Lovebirds is highly exaggerated. In the film, the ladder is maybe two or three rungs. In The Girl it is like climbing the Empire State Building. The first scene in Marnie at the railroad station was filmed in San Jose not on a soundstage. No biggie. Overall an okay film but could have been better. Now, in regards to Tippi Hedren's allegations. So many people are angry with her for daring to accuse the mighty Hitchcock of sexual harassment. For stabbing him in the back after all that he did for her. For being the only actress who had problems with him. For waiting so long to "come out" with her accusations. Back in 1985 I had a phone conversation with Diane Baker (Hedren's co-star in Marnie) on radio station KGO in San Francisco. Curious about her experience's working with Hitchcock I asked her what it was like. She immediately spent about ten minutes talking about Hitchcock's mistreatment of Tippi Hedren during the filming. She pulled no punches. I had no reason not to believe her. She was there. She saw it. In recent interviews she goes so far as to say she did not like Hitchcock at all. Those who accuse Hedren of being a liar need to add Diane Baker to their list. I believe them both.

There once was a man from Nantucket

[tieman64 · 7 July 2014]

Directed by Julian Jarrold, "The Girl" documents the alleged sexual and psychological abuse of actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) at the hands of acclaimed film director Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones).

Some have complained that "The Girl" engages in character assassination, and that it unfairly portrays Hitchcock as an abusive pervert. This is mostly irrelevant. Miller and Jones are unconvincing as Hedren and Hitchcock, their characters are superficially written and the film's central metaphor – that the productions of Hitchcock's "Marnie" and "The Birds" were deliberate attempts at indirect or symbolic rape – are silly. More importantly, the film's version of Hitchcock never convinces as either an obsessive control freak or sexually dysfunctional abuser; this is not how such personalities behave. "The Girl's" problem is not that it character assassinates Alfred Hitchcock, but that it trivialises and distorts what real psychological and sexual abuse looks like and how real victims and abusers look and behave when locked in such relationships.

Ironically, Hitchcock's own films were superb at chronicling how women are abused and buffeted about by patriarchal forces. Hitchcock may have fetishized women, may have turned them into trinkets and ornaments, but his films were often explicitly about the problems of such psychic and literal violence. "The Girl", in contrast, is just bad art.

5/10 - Worth one viewing.

Not a documentary, but a fine film

[Ana_Banana · 7/10 · 30 November 2013]

A frequent error people (me included) make in regard to biographic films is to take things too literally. We should keep in mind that a film is (or at least should be) a work of art by itself, therefore having its own message, views and means of expression.

Everybody is raging against this fine TV film because of its inaccuracies and one-sided take on a great director. But it's not all about him, as in 'Amadeus' it's not just about the real Mozart. During a second viewing of 'The Girl' it occurred to me that we need to see things under the surface: it's a parable about love, refusal, inner torments and mixed feelings, well, that kind of things. And that makes this film human, because a great artist is no saint and a beautiful woman is not always a perfect mother and/or performer ('professional').

Was everything in his motivation only about his ego, his unrequited love or sexual desire, or about his 'not aging gracefully' (if I may put it like that and not in Freudian terms)? And of course they didn't insist much on her own motivation: if he has been so abusive as a consequence of their love-hate relationship, why did she still continue to work with him? Just for the fame perspectives, for the money, or to prove him something? We don't really know it from the movie and this is just fine! Life is a mystery (so sings Madonna on my TV in 'Like A Prayer' exactly as I was starting to write it!). Talk about serendipity...

Being a Romanian, it was easy for me to recognize in this film, among the other aspects, a similarity with the Romanian myth of Manole the Craftsman, who had to sacrifice his beloved wife within the walls of the church he was building in order to make them stand. It's a well known East-European symbol of the need for sacrifice in art and I think it's not too far fetched a key for interpreting this film (which visually and acting-wise looks very good to me, by the way).

Not a historical record of fact, but a work of speculative fiction

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 9 January 2013]

"The Girl" is a recent British television film about the difficult relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren, who starred in two of his films in the 1960s. In 1963 Hedren, then aged 33, was a relatively obscure model with little acting experience, when Hitchcock spotted her in a television commercial and asked her to star in his next film "The Birds". The director, famous of his preference for blonde actresses, had been struck by Hedren's looks, and felt that she could be the next Ingrid Bergman or Grace Kelly, two actresses who had each appeared in three Hitchcock films.

The film, based upon Hedren's own recollections, alleges that Hitchcock became obsessed with his leading lady, and that when she rejected his sexual advances he took his revenge by subjecting her to various traumatic and humiliating experiences during the filming of both "The Birds" and "Marnie". After completing this second film, Hedren refused to work with him again, but because she was still under contract to him, a contract from which he refused to release her, she was unable to work elsewhere in Hollywood. Hedren has said that his treatment of her effectively ruined her career.

Biopics of famous actresses from the past, especially of those who were noted for their beauty, often suffer from difficulties with casting, as it is not always possible to find a modern actress who bears the necessary resemblance to the woman she is playing, even with the creative use of make-up. (Does anyone, for example, really think that Lindsay Lohan looks much like Liz Taylor?) Sienna Miller may not be an exact Tippi Hedren look-alike, but at least there is sufficient resemblance to make her casting plausible, and Miller is able to capture the grace and elegance which was such an important part of Hedren's on- screen presence. Toby Jones captures Hitchcock's distinctive voice and mannerisms, and, with the assistance of prosthetic makeup and a fatsuit, manages to look reasonably like him, although suffers from the disadvantage that he is around twenty years younger than Hitch would have been at this period in his life. We are always aware that we are looking at a younger man made up as an older one.

The treatment of Hitchcock in the film has been a controversial one. Some reviewers on this board have taken exception to its portrayal of him as a sexual predator, and some figures from the film industry who knew him and worked with him have come forward to defend him. These include Kim Novak, the star of his "Vertigo", even though her own working relationship with him was said to be a difficult one. (She never made another film with him, even though she fitted the "Hitchcock blonde" template perfectly). Certainly, some of the details shown in the film do not quite ring true. Would Hitchcock, for example, really have tried to include a clause in Hedren's contract that she must make herself sexually available to him whenever he demands? He would have known full well that such a clause would have been legally null and void, and any attempt to put such a demand in writing would only have increased the risk of his being exposed in a public scandal.

Moreover, Hitchcock's refusal to release Hedren from her contract does not seem to have damaged her career quite as much as she alleges. Her third film, "Run for Your Life", was made only a year after "Marnie", and since then she has gone on to appear in over forty films and TV movies. Admittedly, some of these have been rather obscure, but I doubt if she would have had more success had she continued working for Hitchcock. (His next film after "Marnie" was the dull spy thriller "Torn Curtain", which didn't do much for its leading lady Julie Andrews).

And yet Tippi Hedren is in a better position than anyone else to know what happened between Hitchcock and herself, so I would not dismiss the film on the grounds that the events it describes never took place. Because the truth or otherwise of Hedren's allegations can never definitively be established- and I can see no reason why she might be lying- trying to judge it on the basis of its supposed historical accuracy, or lack of accuracy seems pointless. It needs to be judged not as a historical record of fact, but as a work of speculative fiction, albeit one which takes real individuals for its leading characters.

Seen in that light, "The Girl" is quite a good film. The story told here is essentially that of every leering employer who cannot keep his hands off the girls in the typing pool and has no qualms about abusing his power over them for his sexual gratification. Regardless of whether the events shown are, or are not, literally true, it contains a good deal of emotional and psychological truth in its portrait of a flawed genius obsessively pursuing a much younger woman, and of a frightened young woman determined to uphold her honour and her dignity when she realises that her dreams of stardom have made her the target of a elderly sex pest. 7/10

Fascinating insights but not flattering to Hitchcock

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 20 May 2013]

This TV movie looks at Alfred Hitchcock's obsession with Tippi Hedren during the making of the Birds.

This is quite fascinating compared to the film "Hitchcock" starring Anthony Hopkins. It shows Hitchcock's obsession with his leading ladies in a more predatory abusive nature than the Hopkins movie. Wonder which is closer to the truth? Sienna Miller doesn't look much like Tippi - she has a harder look but she does a good job. Toby looks more like Hitch than Anthony Hopkins.

Watch "The Birds" first and then watch this. The peek a the behind the scenes creative process is fascinating for Hitchcock fans.

Rear Window Into The Soul

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 22 October 2012]

As most film buffs are aware, Alfred Hitchcock was a known voyeur and that kink was evident in most of his films and the Director was able to channel that obsession for creative and successful movies. The art form itself is genuinely, by nature, produced to satisfy the voyeuristic tendencies of the audience. No one knew that better than Hitch.

It is also known that he liked blonds with a cool demeanor. But to just what extent he used his leverage over these actresses was not very clear. According to Tippi Hedren, if we are to believe her accounts, this made for HBO Movie is truth told to power (posthumously).

This is an old Hollywood story that used to be referred to as "the casting couch". Here we have an impotent Hitch groping and demanding obedience "available to me in all i desire", a determined, sad old man, that uses his on set Direction to "torture" her with repeated, dangerous and humiliating takes of a scene in The Birds (1963).

But she is a strong and resilient woman who would make another movie, Marnie (1964) with Alfie and then fade to black. The movie makes its points in a straightforward, blemishes and all, account that is well acted by all and, surprisingly, without any flourishes that made Hitchcock a legendary film maker.

It is a sympathetic portrayal of a beautiful woman and a flawed, fat and ugly, powerful man. A Beauty and the Beast story. Not a pleasant situation about an unpleasant, but talented man.

Unpleasant motives

[Skint111 · 5/10 · 17 January 2013]

As Total Film magazine said of this one-off drama, "it amounts to nothing less than a wholesale character assassination". They were right – it makes Albert Goldman's biography of John Lennon appear hagiographic.

While it looks great and Sienna Miller is fine as Hedren and Jones captures Hitch's voice well, The Girl is a narrow and nasty portrayal of the world's greatest film director. In its attempt to construct a drama it forgets some important points: people often have to suffer for their art; Alfred Hitchcock was a film director who knew his audience better than anyone, his understanding of the human condition was deep, and he realised that the thing that mattered most was the experience that the audience would derive from his work. If it meant discomfort and long hours on the set, that was a price worth paying – there's no room for fluffy dressing gowns and tea and biscuit breaks when you're trying to create a masterpiece, something that might last for centuries.

To suggest that Hitch unexpectedly sent a model bird crashing through a telephone box window just to terrify and "punish" Hedren, as opposed to being a desire to frighten the wits out of the audience, is absurd. The shoot of The Birds had been meticulously planned for – literally – years, and in any case, why would Hitch risk harming his leading lady's features? The greatest of people are endowed with light and shade, and possess the ability to view human existence from deep and differing positions. Hitchcock was one of these people. This greatness is something to be lauded – not bemoaned and belittled, as was the case with The Girl.

All of the pieces are in place for a great movie....except the story

[funwithstardestroyers · 6/10 · 25 November 2012]

I stumbled across this one day while scanning through the channels. I saw "Hitchcock" in the description, so I decided to have a look. Now I'll admit, I don't know all that much about Hitchcock. I know he's a great director, but I know next to nothing about his personal life or any controversy that may have lead to this movie. Instead I focused on the movie itself. After watching, I decided to look it up, where I came across the rather large controversy that this film has created. So here's my humble take on the film.

"The Girl" is a brilliant film from a mechanical standpoint. The acting is brilliant. Toby Jones sounds almost IDENTICAL to Hitchcock. It was really quite eerie to listen to the two. He seemed to capture the mannerisms from the director quite well. Sienna Miller was okay, but was a bit dry in some parts. Otherwise it was a fine group of actors. Likewise, directing, cinematography and editing were all exceptional, so why does this film fail?

A question I have instead of all the "is this a true story?" is, if you have all of the makings of a great film-a great cast, a great director, great camera-work-why base the story on such a controversial and doubtful series of events? Why not use the tools you have to make a biopic of sorts? This is what baffles me. If this film had followed a different story, it would probably have a much better rating. Everything points to a successful film EXCEPT the story, so why do it?

I suppose this is the problem with film these days. People are more concerned about the shock factor than an actual quality film. It's a shame too, because this could have been much, much better and free from controversy.

Pretty Shoddy.

[rmax304823 · 4/10 · 20 October 2012]

Poor Tippi Hedren. She's a pretty, blond model from the Minnesota flatlands who is adopted, groomed, publicized, manipulated, groped, and finally propositioned by the great Alfred Hitchcock. The fat old Hitchcock is played by Toby Jones, who gives the only half-way believable performance in the movie, quite aside from his physical and vocal reincarnation of Hitch.

The lousy script gives him a few moments of humanity, which come across more as self pity than pathos. But otherwise he's domineering, stingy sadist who subjects Hedren to dozens of takes in "The Birds" in which live birds are forced to attack her. She endures bird bites. Her only reward -- celebrity, cinematic immortality, and a salary that was about a million times what you and I make. I felt sympathy for her mistreatment but would have traded places with her in an instant. As a result of this abuse, she's directed by her doctor to take five days off. Everyone on the set frets because this is costing money. But when she's recovered, she swings onto the set, flings away her coat, faces the camera with a brave grin, and announces, "Let's finish this movie." Everyone on the set applauds her dedication and courage.

The direction matches the script and the acting. The screen is full of monstrous and very meaningful close ups. In case you might miss the importance of a particular point, the camera dollies in for that close up. They're usually of Hitch's stony face or Hedren's frightened one.

Donald Spoto, who wrote a candid but sympathetic biography of Hitchcock, was a script consultant and, by and large, the story follows historical reality, in so far as that can be determined through the testimony of Tippi Hedren. It's her story, and both Hitchcock and most of his friends are now dead and in no position to object. Of the private encounters between Hedren and Hitch, I believe about half.

I don't know why it was left out of the script but by the end of "Marnie," Hedren's second film with Hitchcock, Hitch was guzzling booze by the barrel. Well, it's not exactly left out. There is one scene of Hitch drunk.

But why go on? This shabby affair doesn't deserve more attention.

Getting Hitched

[tomsview · 8/10 · 7 August 2013]

Wow! Is that really what happened? In many biographies about Alfred Hitchcock, the most Tippi Hedren ever said about the incident when Alfred Hitchcock supposedly propositioned her was, "Demands were made of me that I could not acquiesce to." But in "The Girl", Toby Jones' Hitchcock puts it right out there when he says to Sienna Miller's Tippi Hedren, "From now on, I want you to make yourself sexually available to me at all times. Whatever I want you to do, whenever I want you to do it."

Possibly it happened that way, Tippi Hedren seems to have been consulted by the filmmakers. My feeling is that where there was that much smoke there had to be fire, but just how fair is "The Girl"?

The movie is nothing less than interesting. Toby Jones is amazing, and Sienna Miller more than holds her own, but opinion over the film is divided. On one side are those outraged that Hitchcock's reputation has been besmirched without a chance to defend himself, while on the other are those outraged at what Hitchcock appears to have done to Tippi Hedren.

"The Girl" relates how Alfred Hitchcock groomed the inexperienced Hedren to star in "The Birds" and "Marnie". During the process, Hitchcock changed from mentor to monster becoming totally obsessed with her. Eventually he made an overt sexual advance. She refused and that was the end of the relationship.

One scene in "The Girl" does undermine it. It's the somewhat salacious screen test where Hitchcock asks Hedren to give Martin Balsam a long lingering kiss. Unfortunately for the makers of "The Girl", the actual test clip is fairly well known from documentaries and YouTube, and is a lot less threatening than the recreation. In reality, Balsam and Hedren actually seem quite comfortable with each other. It was silly to overdo a scene that is so accessible; it leaves you wondering how much over-egging went on with the rest of the custard.

The difference between Hedren and Hitchcock's other leading ladies was that they were better able to handle him. Most were established stars, surrounded by husbands, boyfriends and agents, but Hedren didn't have all that; she was just starting out and was far more vulnerable.

According to some sources, it was about this time that Hitchcock's judgement also seemed to be slipping. The suppressed voyeuristic tendencies and fantasies that helped inform his great films were taking on a harder edge. He now wanted to be explicit in what he showed.

Up until then, the Motion Picture Production Code kept him in check. Would films like "Rear Window", "Vertigo" or even "Psycho" be the enduring classics they are today if Hitchcock had been allowed to go all the way? The censor made him innovative and subtle. However, by the late 60's the Code was gone. No one ever ranks 1972's "Frenzy" among his greatest movies; plenty of rape and nudity on display there. Fortunately he never made "Kaleidoscope"; with what he had planned, it could have been a real legend killer.

As far as "The Girl" is concerned, maybe it's best to just enjoy the show. Toby Jones' Hitchcock is even better than his Truman Capote, genius really, the voice is perfect, and Sienna Miller is so beautiful that you can believe that a fat, old auteur could harbour a fantasy or two about her. But maybe the last words on the subject could be the classic line Hitchcock once directed at an actor who was getting a bit too worked up about things, "Don't worry, it's only a movie".

When Studios Roamed The Earth

[cwdkidman · 7/10 · 15 November 2022]

It's been suggested that Tippi Hedren lied about Hitchcock since no one else came out against him. BS. During the 30s to early 60s,actors and actresses didn't rock the boat. They stayed frieny with men who abused them or angered them. Studio execs were a powerful boys club, and if you attacked one, you.attacked them all. The only actor I ever heard attacking a studio big shot was Errol Flynn physically attacking director Michael. Curtiz for using trip wire during the Charge of the Light Brigade. Dozens of horses were injured and about 30 had to be put down. Appalled, Flynn.went straight for Curtiz and attacked him. He had to be pulled away from killing Curtis, he was so angry. No one punished him. They knew he had a hot temper and didn't care if he was blacklisted - he'd go back to Australia in a.heartbeat.

Tippi couldn't physically fight Hitchcock or go to any other country to work. As for Bergman, Kelly, and Novak, what would be the upside in attacking/accusing Hitchcock? He was a very powerful director and could get anyone blacklisted for even.telling it friends. Better to stay on good terms with him. Look at Harvey Weinstein and who stayed friends with him for years even.after being assaulted..Besides, the casting couch wasn't a fairy tale. These girls knew the score: keep.your mouth shut and you might get rich.

Tippi waited a long time before telling of her being assaulted. The small.details of her story make the whole thing have the ring of truth. I believe her. And I believe she wasn't the only one.

A decent film... had it not been supposedly 'based on reality'

[couzijn · 1/10 · 3 December 2017]

Because a vote of 1 means 'awful' in IMDb terms, and because I find this movie actually 'awful', I cannot but give it a vote of 1.

Which is a shame, really, because if this movie had been purely fictional, it would have been a decent film with an interesting, albeit somewhat weird plot, and a screenplay that left something to desire. I might have given it a '5' then.

But the fact is that the makers of, and contributors to this movie knew full well, as does their audience, that the premise of this movie is decidedly NOT fictional, but envisions to portray 'real life events'. Here starts the 'awful' feeling for me.

At the end of the day, there is not a shred of proof that the events as displayed in this movie actually happened. And the makers know that. It is not just a case of 'personal opinion', like it is not a case of 'personal opinion' whether Kennedy was murdered, or that Harvey Weinstein attempted to take advantage of young actresses.

By portraying Alfred Hitchcock in this sensationalist light, and making bucks out of it, the makers deliberately hurt the memory of a man who is not around to protest anymore. The makers should have asked themselves: would we dare to make this movie, in this way, had the man been still alive? Would the evidence weigh up to the doubt and the protest? And they would have concluded that it wouldn't. The fact that they dared make this movie now Hitch is dead, shows a cowardly attitude behind it.

Why then, you ask me, is it unlikely that the events portrayed in the movie ever happened? For starters: because the many, many people who were around at the time vehemently deny any misbehavior ever happened, and just as vehemently assert that these events were *very* unlikely to happen with the Hitchcock they knew. The other actors, the other set personnel, the people close to Hitch, Mrs. Hedren's assistants, no one ever came to the fore with anything substantial that corroborates Hedren's story; instead they deny it, or at least deem it unlikely it happened without them noticing it.

Second, Hedren kept her mouth shut for many decades. That would be somewhat credible if during that time, she hadn't given such praise and devoted such warm words to her experience with Hitchcock in the mean time - which she did. It was only at the end of her career, which was not particularly successful, and only after Hitchcock was dead & gone, and only after Donald Spoto interviewed her for his Hichcock biography, that she told this narrative of an 'abusive' Hitchcock. As if she needed a reason why her career post-Hitchcock never took off - a reason outside of herself.

Thirdly, because there is ample material evidence that refute important elements in Hedren's narrative. There is a trainload of contemporary documentation (business correspondence, personal letters, media publications) that prove Hedren's memory wrong. You can get a good taste of that on the website SaveHitchcock.com, which attempts to provide objective information about the actual events. Here is a good place to start: a rebuttal to Hedren's recently published Memoirs: https://savehitchcock.com/2016/10/19/tippi-a-memoir/

In sum, this movie is a cowardly attempt to discredit and vilify a great director and a great personality, who is vulnerable because he cannot defend himself from accusations of sexual predatorism, which are based on hearsay from exactly one source.

I don't find it troubling that a single disappointed actor (Hedren) at a certain point in her life chose to follow this path; she is the only one to know her reasons for it, and whether they are honest or not. Yet I do find it disappointing that a large group of professionals in the movie industry chose to make money from trampling on someone's corpse by making this very one-sided movie. And most of all I find it troubling that the American audience seems to love it, falls for this manipulation of history, and appears to embrace this sensationalist story with a vengeance.

I am glad that Hitch is not around anymore to live through this totally undeserved character assassination.

Pretty Useless Look at Hitch and "The Girl"

[Michael_Elliott · 7 December 2012]

The Girl (2012)

** (out of 4)

HBO movie about the working relationship between Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) and Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) while making THE BIRDS and MARNIE. The film focuses in on Hitchcock's mental and sexual abuse of the actress who blames the director for her career never taking off. THE GIRL has hit with all sorts of controversy with people attacking it for trying to ruin Hitchcock's legacy and others attacking Hedren for coming up with this stories after years of talking about how great the director was. I guess we'll never really know what happened between the two but it's pretty clear by watching this movie that it didn't make for any entertainment. THE GIRL could have made for an interesting psychological thriller but what we get is pretty much a gossip film that has nothing going for it. It seems like the only thing this film tried to do was show Hitchcock as an ugly man both physically and in the way that he treated women. Watching this film you learn absolutely nothing about Hitchcock or this so-called obsession with Hendren. Did Hitch do this to other actresses? Why was Hitch so obsessed with Hedren? These are two important things that are never mentioned here and the only thing we are told is that this happened. THE GIRL is so short on any sort of information that the entire thing just comes across as an attempt to show a legend as a pervert. Again, if this really happened then I have no problem with a movie being made about it. The problem is that director Julian Jarrold has delivered a lifeless, boring mess that just doesn't add up to anything. Both Jones and Miller do what they can with decent performances but neither can overcome the screenplay. The best thing going in the film is the make-up job done to Jones. THE GIRL might lure people in wanting to see what all the controversy is about but I can't see too many sticking around to the end.

The Girl

[dalydj-918-255175 · 6/10 · 22 October 2012]

In the mind of Tippi Hedren on of Hitchcock's most known blonde's for how she says he treated her which ended up in ending her career after she left him. In the film Alfred Hitchcok (Tony Jones) has come of the recent success of Psycho now wants to make his follow up The Birds. While watching TV Alma (Imelda Staunton) notices a blonde named Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) in a commercial, she gets called in to audition and ends up getting the main part. Everything seems to be going OK when filming begins but soon Hitchcock's real ambitions start to show, they start when he kisses her in the back of limo which she did not want to happen causing her to run away in anger. The film then takes a strange turn from there as we see Hitchcock start to punish her especially when filming the attic scene her changes the schedule from one day with fake birds to five days and real birds attacking her. As filming continues he still try's to push closer to her but she try's to stop it from happening. The two stars also film Marne which is the last film they make together, one of the final scenes happens after a scene from Marne is filmed Tippi comes into Hitch's office and he tells her that she will now give into his sexual desires, when she turns down this offer he says he will ruin her career (which he did). The ending scene of the film is filled with happiness and sadness as Tippi finally feels free while Hitchcock feels sad that he has put this women through the ringers, this is the only moment that changed the character of Hitchcock as he is written as just pure creepy evil while Tippi is written as an antihero as she has many chances to stop it all but gives in because she feels that's what she must do for her career. Toby Jones once again plays a famous figure as someone else in the same year (He played Capote the year PSH won the Oscar), his performance of Hitchcock doesn't change much which means he is able to nail it in the first couple of minutes continuing through the film to play a character without any development maybe at the end when he sees the girl go away. Sienna Miller has never been known for her acting skills but with her performance of Tippi Hedren I was surprised how much I connected with the performance. She played Tippi as a scared women who thinks she cannot do anything. If you look at actual film of these two film Sienna does a great job of recreating some of these scenes. The film had many problems because the story seemed very unrealistic and underdeveloped only trying to get us to believe one story in what Hedren said instead of what Hitchcock might have said.

MOVIE GRADE: C (MVP: Sienna Miller)

The Girl

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 7 January 2013]

I had always heard about the tension that the Master of Suspense director created with him and his actresses, the one I know best is Joan Fontaine during the filming of Rebecca to get the best reactions on screen, but this was one I had to see after I had heard so many rumours, so this is the dramatisation of the story, from director Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane, Appropriate Adult). Basically director Alfred Hitchcock (Golden Globe nominated Toby Jones) has an obsession with using blonde actresses in his pictures, they have included Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, Eva Marie Saint and Grace Kelly who has retired to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco, and for his latest movie, The Birds, he is looking for the next one, and he discovers her when he and his wife Alma Reville (Imelda Staunton) see her in a television commercial. Tippi Hedren (Golden Globe nominated Sienna Miller) is a little known model and occasional actress, but has no experience of movie acting, but she is screen tested and successful in getting the part of Melanie Daniels, other actresses have apparently been thriving to be the lead star. Of course besides his desire to create a movie that will be scarier and more terrifying than Psycho, Hitchcock has a sexual desire for Tippi, he is happy to spend time with her and help her with her every need, and for a while she sees him as just an innocent and kind man, of course when he gets too close she realises his true intentions. He puts her through a lot while filming the birds, using many of his unorthodox techniques to create the right reactions while filming, and using real birds for an attic scene which left scratched and traumatised, appalled Alma and director's assistant Peggy Robertson (Penelope Wilton) can't do anything to help her. The situations are giving her nightmares, but with her contract she is almost forced to agree to being in Hitchcock's next picture, Marnie, also starring Sean Connery who has been successful with the recent James Bond films, and during the process of filming Alma tells Tippi that she is the only woman Hitchcock has had sex with, this is a good explanation for his advances. Tippi continues to suffer through Hitchcock's phone calls and various other ways declaring his love for her, there is even an incident with a possible attempt at rape, and eventually not long before the end of filming she finally snaps at her director. Tippi stands up for herself, but Hitchcock reminds her that he made her famous and that she has a contract to live up to, but she demands that her contract be terminated, and sure enough he, according to claims, told her that he would ruin her and make sure she never works in Hollywood again, and the end says that they never worked again (ironically she is in the TV made sequel of The Birds, and as a different character). Also starring Carl Beukes as Jim Brown, Conrad Kemp as Evan Hunter, Angelina Ingpen as Melanie, Candice D'Arcy as Josephine Milton, Kate Tilley as Rita Riggs, Leon Clingman as Ray Berwick, Patrick Lyster as Bob Boyle and Aubrey Shelton as Maitre D. Miller gives a really good performance as the young actress who wants to prove herself a good actress but goes through hell to keep this going, Jones is great as the director who is a genius for his craft but has something of a darker side to get what he wants on and off screen, the writers definitely do everything right to make this biographical story feel realistic, you believe most of everything that happens and recognise the on screen stuff from the two films by Hitchcock, an interesting drama based on a true story. It is nominated the Golden Globe for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. Good!

Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 7/10 · 24 November 2013]

This film, stars British actor Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger, Snow White and the Huntsman) as Hitchcock. He hires actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) for his follow-up to Psycho, The Birds.

The film about Psycho came out just one month later with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock.

So, the question naturally arise: with two Hitchcocks in a month, one in theaters and one on HBO, who is the better Hitchcock?

One thing is certain. I have lost all respect for the real Alfred Hitchcock. He is an asshole.

Hopkins made the better character. Mirren was certainly the better Alma. Miller was fantastic and deserved her BAFTA.

Hedren never achieved her stardom.

WOW, HITCHCOCK WAS A CREEP!

[srobertson-75103 · 6/10 · 7 February 2020]

I watched this many years after it aired (found it at the library). I'd say the acting is pretty good...I think it really is a "behind the scenes" story...literally. Most of the movie shows what happened between takes and in the dressing rooms. I'm writing this in 2020, but obviously this was before the "me too" movement. I think many actresses just knew about the casting couch and the big shot movie directors were going to hit on them. I remember Tippi Hendren talking in an interview (when she was older) about how she was sabotaged by Hitchcock. Hitchcock seemed like an emotionally unstable creative genius with lots of obsessions and idiosyncracies. I felt very sorry for his wife...but I'm sure there were many wives in the movie industries that were tossed aside for starlets.

The Girl...a hatchet job

[clivechristy-549-202969 · 1/10 · 8 December 2012]

This movie is in the vein of Mommie Dearest, but without the high camp hilarity and cat fights in the sunken lounge. The entire lumbering disaster should have been called The Fractured Fairy tales of T. Hedren, and it's clear from the start she is a victim. Tippi Hedren is a victim of her beauty, kindness, generosity of spirit and of course her sheer naïveté. Of course, it's nonsense...but not even unintentionally funny nonsense. It takes itself so seriously (like Hedren herself) although for what reason, I have no idea. Toby Jones and Imelda Staunton are good, but they are the only bright lights in a movie that is so underacted and underwhelming that it's painful to watch. Staunton is reduced to a mere cliché but works hard to give her character and the memory of Alma Hitchcock some gravitas.

Now to Sienna Miller, who has all the acting skills of lumber and runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. She is closest dramatically to Hedren herself who seems to blame Hitchcock for her premature career death. What is Miller's excuse for her inexorable and agonizing inability to act? She cannot blame Hitchcock...so I wonder who she does blame. Granted, she has a slim script and so many close ups of her face which is intended for her to emote. However her face is so botoxed, she has no emotion and instead just looks weepy and slack-jawed. It's funny really....Sienna Miller has virtually no acting skills but at least she could be relied on to use her face to give some meaning to her roles. Take that away...and she is a moving speaking coat hanger for replica fashions and an overworked wardrobe department.

The script is clunky, slow and overwrought. The scenes of bad acting are strung together with no apparent connection or rationale and the long lingering camera shots of Sienna with her blank face and shabby accent make the film even less watchable. The final scene where Hitchcock asks Hedren to make herself "sexually available" to him is one of the most unintentionally crass and sloppy scenes in the film, and leads to the claim that Hedren has made repeatedly that it was Hitchcock who ruined her career.

After watching this clunker with Miller as Hedren, it's clear the reason Hedren failed was because she just couldn't act. There is a line, where according to Hedren, Hitch took a "..living breathing woman and turned her into a statue." Perhaps this is the most honest line in the entire film. Both Hedren and Miller have all the acting skills of a statue without the benefits of a statue's silence.

Tippi was rude to Hitch

[rcnelsoniii · 7/10 · 19 November 2012]

While Jim could hug and console Tippi, she treated Hitch as if he was a much older and overweight slug -- right on two counts. But, Hitch was no slug. She could not even say that she loved him in return to his saying that to her, something that is not uncommon among any group of people. She should have said, "I love you too, Hitch," just as he said by himself after she ran out of the room. But, no. She treated him as if she was filming the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

As a retired CEO of a company, I have had many women tell me that they love me, and I respond in kind, and truthfully. This has never led to anything untoward, and was not the intent in any case. In fact, it helped us to be like a second family, which is very important in the optoelectronics and software field.

I suspect that Tippi Hedren has had many regrets if this was, in fact, the way that she acted. The final, overboard, absurd request for sex on demand was either fiction or his way of running her off using exasperation, in not only my opinion, but the opinion of the people in my company, both male and female. Hitch knew that he would run her off with that kind of request if what is shown in the movie is accurate.

As miscast as Hedren was in "The Birds", that's nothing compared to Sienna Miller as "The Girl"...

[moonspinner55 · 3/10 · 27 June 2014]

Well-enough produced cable-film, adapted from Donald Spoto's book "Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and his Leading Ladies", seems to have been made simply to show off the sadistic antics of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, something most film-buffs are already aware of from books--better ones than Spoto's--and from Hollywood folklore. Hitchcock's wife and confidant, Alma (Imelda Staunton) is the first to spot model Tippi Hedren on television and recommends her to Hitch for the lead in his next thriller, "The Birds"; smitten with the Swedish blonde, he grooms her, trains her, seduces her (clumsily, it appears) and amuses himself by shocking her. Just because Sienna Miller has been given the correct shade of blonde hair to play Hedren does not mean she is well-cast; sparkling, girlishly innocuous and effusive, Sienna's Tippi begins the film-within-the-film as an eager newcomer ("I'm putty in your hands!" she flirtatiously tells Hitchcock) but is soon staring numbly out car windows or complaining about her working hours...and it doesn't wash. So much care has been given to the production design that apparently no one thought to craft a convincing character here--or to cast an ideal actress in the role. The real Tippi Hedren was a mannered ice-queen who spoke with a haughty cadence; Miller sashays inside of strides, and smiles from ear to ear when paid a compliment. And if she's miscast, than Toby Jones is her unfortunate equal as Hitchcock. Jones looks like Hitch from the back, but his facial features are too small and he speaks far too rapidly. Much of the blame can be placed upon Julian Jarrold's uncommitted direction. Jarrold probably did his homework--and probably took delight in the performances his actors were giving--but he's all style. He knows the song by heart but he's sadly out of tune.

Insight into a complex man

[syd9907 · 8/10 · 4 November 2012]

***Spoiler Alert*** ***Spoiler Alert***

I had the pleasure of meeting several people who worked with Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds, Marnie and one of his earlier films, The Man Who Knew Too Much. I was writing a thesis on Hitchcock and wanted to get a little more information on his personal life. All of the people I spoke with,long before this movie was made, said that Hitchcock was absolutely incessant and relentless in his pursuit of Tippi Hedren and she tried to rebuff him as politely as she could. But he made her life a living Hell. And yes he did ruin her career. He made it impossible for her to work and it was all because she wouldn't succumb to his harassment. They all said that with his genius, there was a very evil and dark side to his personality.

After watching The Girl, it mirrored closely what I was told by each one of the people I interviewed for my thesis. Just because someone is a brilliant auteur doesn't mean that you know them personally. I thought the movie was fair and sometimes the truth about someone is ugly. Toby Jones is superb as Hitchcock and Sienna Miller captured the essence of Hedren. Overall, I felt that the movie is very much up to HBO's high production values. And I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a riveting story about power, lust and strength.

Tough crowd in the comments!

[elishawin2005 · 7/10 · 5 April 2022]

Of course we have all heard the name of Alfred Hitchcock if you were born before what, 1985 maybe? 1978 here. Anyway, I wasn't very familiar with the man's personal life and I had only seen bits and pieces of his films but I have heard him mentioned more during the beginning of the current "me too" days. Don't we kinda assume that a pretty girl was disrespected and thought of as a sexual object to wealthy men with a little power in Hollyweird? I would say it happened(s) more often than not so I wasn't really surprised to see it happen to/with "The Girl". I don't know if it's because I wasn't very familiar with him but it looks like I didn't think the movie was bad like most of the other reviews I scrolled by. I like watching movies based on real Hollywood celebrities from back in the day. They usually leave me wanting to browse the internet to learn more about them and this movie did just that even though I'm a little late to the watching party. Regardless, I think the IMDb score is a little lower than it actually deserves but it is what it is because we all have an opinion. Mine happens to be a healthy 7.

Water Muddied by Boorish Performance

[ricburger · 3/10 · 28 October 2012]

I love movies about making movies. Unfortunately this one is not for me. This is supposed to be based on real events, and while I am not saying these events didn't happen. I just can't buy it. While the writing certainly was part of the problem, it is the awful performance of Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock that brings the movie down. Whether or not Hitchcock actually harassed Tippi Hendren isn't the issue I have here. It's believing that the fiend doing it in this film is actually Alfred Hitchcock. Look I know that Hitchcock was famous for his gallows humor and a love of dirty jokes and limericks, but the movie has Tippi Hendren as the only one who is hearing any of these remarks. In addition Toby Jones comes across as a boorish piece of wood in his portrayal of the master of the macabre. Because of this I simply can't buy this story at all.