Critic Reviews
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Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
There's little forward momentum in The Girl. It's just the dramatization of one humiliation after another.
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Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times
You need to know that Hitchcock was a real-life Famous Artist in order for the drama, not to say the creepiness, to fully take effect. Otherwise, this is just the story of a sadistic sad old man and the young woman who escapes his clutches.
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Verne Gay, Newsday
Miller's Hedren is cool, distant, humorless, whiny and reproving. She's the perfect block of ice.
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Linda Stasi, New York Post
[Jones] is spectacular.
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Joanne Ostrow, Denver Post
The Girl may make movie lovers want to screen The Birds and Marnie again, perhaps seeing Hedren's performances in a new light through the eyes of the obsessed director.
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Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe
If you approach The Girl as a sliver, and don't expect a full serving, you are more apt to appreciate it.
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Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Doesn't quite manage to portray Hitchcock as masterfully as past biography films, but it's at least a more internal look at Hitchcock's obsession with the blonde.
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Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
[Toby Jones is] the best thing about the project to an almost laughable degree, for it is a nearly complete failure of dramaturgy, filmmaking, and acting.
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Staci Layne Wilson, Yahoo! Movies
Sexual harassment all dressed up and nowhere to go.
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Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com
Certainly explores an enticing tale of obsession and revenge, but it seldom trusts the inherent horror of it all, preferring to spell out jealousies and malicious behavior to a point where fact unfortunately resembles fiction.
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Nathan Rabin, AV Club
It looks gorgeous, with lush production values and gorgeous cinematography, but there's a strange inertness at the film's core.
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Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com
It's well-written and well-directed in terms of historical accuracy and the performances certainly aren't bad but the film never finds a strong creative justification to exist.
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Dan Fienberg, HitFix
Because of stars Jones and Sienna Miller, there are reasons to watch The Girl, but the one-dimensional approach defeats any chance that any serious film fan will revise their opinions on much of anything.
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Scott D. Pierce, Salt Lake Tribune
It's more exhausting than entertaining, unfortunately.
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Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
If you approach The Girl as a sliver, and don't expect a full serving, you are more apt to appreciate it.
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Daniel Goldberg, Slant Magazine
This is Hedren's film, told through her eyes, and in spite of all the glamorous costumes and set pieces, it succeeds at being a thoroughly harrowing exposé of Hollywood patriarchy run amok.
Read all 16 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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In this year's London Olympics opening ceremony, there was one glaring omission from the list of influential Brits, Alfred Hitchcock. Many in the British media have never forgiven the director for leaving for Hollywood and this continues with Julian Jarold's film,… More
In this year's London Olympics opening ceremony, there was one glaring omission from the list of influential Brits, Alfred Hitchcock. Many in the British media have never forgiven the director for leaving for Hollywood and this continues with Julian Jarold's film, co-produced by the BBC and HBO. It tells the tale of Hitch's obsessive relationship with actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) and isn't so much a movie as a character assassination. Many facts are liberally manipulated in order to make Hitch (Toby Jones) seem more of a cartoon villain. Most laughable is a recreation of Hedren's screen test, the tone of which couldn't be more different than the real footage (available to view as an extra on "The Birds" DVD). This is basically the story of an old man who tried it on with a pretty young actress and failed. It's this failure that allows for such a tawdry cheap shot. Had he been successful there would be no story. Where's the movie denigrating Warren Beatty for his manipulation of young women? There is none because if you're handsome you can be as randy as you want, just look at JFK. The message of this film boils down to image fascism. How dare a fat, ugly man try it on with a beautiful woman, don't these unattractive people know their place? On the positive side, this piece of garbage will be forgotten about quickly whereas Hitchcock's legacy will persevere forever.
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I like films about film-making ('The Bad and the Beautiful' is one of my favourites and I've always enjoyed 'RKO 281') and it is fun seeing how they recreat some of the shots and scenes from 'The Birds' and 'Marnie'. On top of this you have… More
I like films about film-making ('The Bad and the Beautiful' is one of my favourites and I've always enjoyed 'RKO 281') and it is fun seeing how they recreat some of the shots and scenes from 'The Birds' and 'Marnie'. On top of this you have a great performance from Jones as Hitchcock. However I wasn't a fan of the one-sided story and the way Hitchcock the sadist and lecher was presented rather than the great film-maker. I can't bring myself to believe that he was as terrible and pathetic as this film makes out and it'd no surprise to learn that Hedren had a big say in the making of the film. Take the whole thing with a huge pinch of salt and enjoy the period feel but don't accept this as actual fact.
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Didn't really care for the story or how it was told. But, Toby Jones is fantastic as Alfred Hitchcock.
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I'm a sucker for movies about the making of movies. Also, the idea of Hitchcock's obsession with blondes and Tippi Hedron intrigued me. Worth a watch, but it might ruin your impression of the master of thrillers.
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