Seeking to reclaim the artistic daring of his youth, Hitchcock turns down film proposals, including Casino Royale and The Diary of Anne Frank, in favor of a horror novel called Psycho by Robert Bloch, based on the real-life crimes of murderer Ed Gein.

Hitchcock's wife and artistic collaborator, Alma, is no more enthusiastic about the idea than his colleagues, especially since she is being lobbied by their writer friend, Whitfield Cook, to look at his own screenplay.

The pressures of the production, such as dealing with Geoffrey Shurlock of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Hitchcock's lecherous habits, such as when they confer with the female lead, Janet Leigh, annoy Alma.

Hitchcock's cut of Psycho is poorly received by the studio executives, while Alma discovers Whitfield having sex with a younger woman at his beach house.

Their renewed collaboration yields results, culminating in Alma persuading Hitchcock to accept their composer's suggestion for adding Bernard Herrmann's harsh strings score to the shower scene.

Early the next month, Gervasi signed on as director with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren attached to star as Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville, respectively.

[8] Additional cast members included Toni Collette as the director's trusted assistant, Danny Huston as screenwriter-playwright Whitfield Cook, Michael Stuhlbarg as powerful agent and studio boss Lew Wasserman, Michael Wincott as serial killer Ed Gein, Ralph Macchio as screenwriter Joseph Stefano, Richard Portnow as Paramount Pictures boss Barney Balaban, and Wallace Langham as graphic designer Saul Bass.

The home media releases contain several making-of featurettes as well as a commentary between director Sacha Gervasi and author Stephen Rebello, a deleted scene, and the film's theatrical trailer.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Though it suffers from tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection, Hitchcock is elevated by inspired performances from its two distinguished leads".

Tom O'Neil of The Huffington Post wrote: "When the film unspooled at AFI Fest on Thursday night, the audience burst into wild huzzahs at the end.

[23] John Patterson of The Guardian called the film "clever and witty"; "the making of Psycho is depicted in detail without our seeing one frame of the completed movie" and concluding "it lives and breathes through Hopkins and Mirren".

[24] Upon its theatrical release, Mary Pols of Time called the film "a feel-good frolic, which is fine for anyone who prefers their Hitchcock history tidied up, absent the megalomania, the condescending cruelty and tendency to sexual harassment that caused his post-Psycho blonde discovery Tippi Hedren to declare him 'a mean, mean man'".

When writing about the film as a whole, McCarthy said, "Hitchcock might be a work of fantasy and speculation as much as it is history and biography, but as an interpretation of a major talent's inner life and imagination, it's undeniably lively and provocative".