Rather than asking what so many others have in saying - what was Gus Van Sant thinking? One should know that he just wanted to try and emulate the man who probably influenced him to become a director in the first place. Could anyone have made a better Psycho than Hitch? Perhaps, but this effort doesn't come close and will hopefully deter anyone else from trying in the future without some kind of interesting twist.
Van Sant's Psycho is very close to being a shot for shot remake of the original. I spent most part of the film trying to see what Van Sant did differently and came up with only a few recognizable differences. The inclusion of the masturbation scene was a twist on the original, but still unecessary since one can tell by looking at Bates (Vince Vaughn) that there is an obvious attraction. I did like the way the opening title sequence was done ever so similarly to the original. It adds nothing to the film, but a piece of nostalgia that is so important.
The acting and casting in this film are somewhat suspect, making it seem that the whole production was rushed (which it really was since Van Sant stuck to Hitch's original six-week shoot). Anne Heche was completely miscast as Marion Crane and only started to add emotion to the role in her last real scene. Watching Heche while she is driving the car will seem to even the most naive moviegoer as quite lame. The opening scene between her and Viggo Mortensen had no chemistry at all, and staying away from the obvious answer as to why, seemed more Mortensen's fault - another miscast. Vaughn gives a good effort as Bates, but still is no Anthony Perkins. He almost tries to be too disturbed, something that Perkins did at a much more subtle level. Watching his hands shake while talking to Heche takes more away from the scene than it adds. I guess most actors would be nervous if they had to play such a complicated role as well.
The only person who I felt really got their role was Julianne Moore. As Lila Crane, she really succeeds at breathing new life into the role and taking none of the Vera Miles original portrayal away. She overpowers Mortensen in all of there scenes together and does the same to William H. Macy in guess what, another miscast playing the supposedly strong-willed Arbogast. After watching Fargo, I don't think Macy will ever be able to pull off a powerful role, or at least in my mind. He will always be known as the loser to whom nothing seems to go right.
If there are any positives to this film (and there are few), I thought Van Sant did a credible job at recreating the shower scene and many of Hitch's other great shots. The camera pan over the city of Phoenix was almost exactly the same as the one shot nearly thirty years earlier. Most other things that are done well are pure credit to those involved in the original, like Bernard Herrmann's score and Joseph Stefano's script from Robert Bloch's book.
I may have given this film a higher grade than it deserves mainly due to the fact that it was neat to see this film made in the nineties with a heavy sixties undertone. Worth a rental if you watch the original first.
5/10 stars.
Van Sant's Psycho is very close to being a shot for shot remake of the original. I spent most part of the film trying to see what Van Sant did differently and came up with only a few recognizable differences. The inclusion of the masturbation scene was a twist on the original, but still unecessary since one can tell by looking at Bates (Vince Vaughn) that there is an obvious attraction. I did like the way the opening title sequence was done ever so similarly to the original. It adds nothing to the film, but a piece of nostalgia that is so important.
The acting and casting in this film are somewhat suspect, making it seem that the whole production was rushed (which it really was since Van Sant stuck to Hitch's original six-week shoot). Anne Heche was completely miscast as Marion Crane and only started to add emotion to the role in her last real scene. Watching Heche while she is driving the car will seem to even the most naive moviegoer as quite lame. The opening scene between her and Viggo Mortensen had no chemistry at all, and staying away from the obvious answer as to why, seemed more Mortensen's fault - another miscast. Vaughn gives a good effort as Bates, but still is no Anthony Perkins. He almost tries to be too disturbed, something that Perkins did at a much more subtle level. Watching his hands shake while talking to Heche takes more away from the scene than it adds. I guess most actors would be nervous if they had to play such a complicated role as well.
The only person who I felt really got their role was Julianne Moore. As Lila Crane, she really succeeds at breathing new life into the role and taking none of the Vera Miles original portrayal away. She overpowers Mortensen in all of there scenes together and does the same to William H. Macy in guess what, another miscast playing the supposedly strong-willed Arbogast. After watching Fargo, I don't think Macy will ever be able to pull off a powerful role, or at least in my mind. He will always be known as the loser to whom nothing seems to go right.
If there are any positives to this film (and there are few), I thought Van Sant did a credible job at recreating the shower scene and many of Hitch's other great shots. The camera pan over the city of Phoenix was almost exactly the same as the one shot nearly thirty years earlier. Most other things that are done well are pure credit to those involved in the original, like Bernard Herrmann's score and Joseph Stefano's script from Robert Bloch's book.
I may have given this film a higher grade than it deserves mainly due to the fact that it was neat to see this film made in the nineties with a heavy sixties undertone. Worth a rental if you watch the original first.
5/10 stars.