Written by Jennifer
March 22, 2009
It wouldn't be a tragedy to tune out after the first ten minutes... sometime after Viggo puts his clothes on.
There really was no need for Gus Van Sant to make an new version of Psycho, but there are two good reasons to watch it: Viggo Mortensen and Vince Vaughn. If you've seen the original, you know all about Norman Bates and his mother, so there's really not much to look forward to in a remake. Marion (played by the alienlike Anne Heche) takes off with the money she's supposed to deposit for her boss, then gets slashed to death in the shower of the Bates Motel while stopping for the night.
The story remains virtually unchanged, so you're left to take in the performances of the new cast. I watched this remake of Psycho when it first came out on video, and found it flat and unimpressive. Seven years later, it's still flat and unimpressive, but the subsequent success of Viggo, Vince, William H. Macy, and Julianne Moore makes it a little more interesting.
While Anthony Perkins's Norman Bates is creepy and deranged, Vince Vaughn's version is quirky and special. His nervous spaz laugh is downright funny, and he runs like a girl with his arms pinned in at the elbow and flailing at the wrist (think Anna Chlumsky in My Girl). His lanky frame works to his advantage in this awkward, oddball role, but he's about as menacing as a kid who just got off the short bus. He reminded me more of Lennie, who kept accidentally squeezing everybody to death in Of Mice and Men, than a psychopath.
Julianne Moore is somewhat bizarre as Lila, Marion's forceful sister. It's mentioned that she works in a vinyl record store, but that doesn't entirely explain the way she stomps around with her headphones blaring. She is assertive to the point of seeming aggressive, but doesn't wear it as well as Vera Miles in the original. Since we don't know the history of her relationship with Marion, her quest to find her comes off as angry, as though she's just irritated that something that belongs to her is not where she left it.
Viggo plays Marion's hot boyfriend Sam, but he can't seem to get too excited about finding her. It's almost as though he's just along for the ride. It's understandable that everyone's annoyed with her for ripping off her boss and then disappearing, but, geez, did anyone even like this woman? When they finally find out for certain that she's dead, neither Sam nor Lila react.
William H. Macy plays the private detective investigating Marion's disappearance, and does a decent job despite being offed soon after making his entrance. Neither he nor Sam are given anything very interesting to do. I didn't actually remember the detective or the boyfriend even being in the original Psycho, because everything paled next to Norman Bates and his mom the first time around. Without the shock value, you begin to realize that everything in Psycho is kind of pale.
The movie is neither good nor bad, although something about it is just sort of off. It is full of anachronisms like Rita Wilson exclaiming "I declare!" and Anne Heche's little orange 60's dresses. Even the men wear these weird high-waisted pants that leave you to wonder if 1998 in Arizona was somehow different than the one the rest of us experienced. Unless you're into watching these actors, it wouldn't be a tragedy to tune out after the first ten minutes... sometime after Viggo puts his clothes on.
