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One of my all time favorites.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

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).

Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) is looking for a blonde to play his next victim in 'The Birds'. His wife Alma (Imelda Staunton) sees Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) on a TV commercial. Tippi is a little known model when Hitchcock thrust her into super stardom. Hitchcock is a drunk and obsessed with the blonde Tippi. He sexually pursues her and abuses her in the infamous 5-day attic shoot using live birds to attack her. He continues to stalk her, and forces her to strip in one of the scenes in his next movie 'Marnie'.Toby Jones is proving a master mimic once again. He is convincing as Hitchcock. Sienna Miller is a little too sexual for the more virginal idealized character of Tippi Hedren. Tippi indicates that she had fought off plenty of leaches during her modeling days. It would be nice to have that scene in the beginning. Generally, the subject matter may have been intense, but it didn't translate onto the screen. They needed to build the tension up. Instead Hitchcock was creepy from the start. It'd be better to start from a happier place. As for the truth behind the story, I'm unwilling to judge on that matter unlike many other reviewers here. Tippi seems to like it although the climax is really hard to swallow.

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".