Written by: Joseph Stefano
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen and William H. Macy
I don't consider Gus Van Sant's Psycho to be one of the worst remakes ever, but it's undoubtedly the most pointless. It would be nice to say it tried to be inventive and failed, but it doesn't attempt that. It's nearly a total replication of the original film, using the same shots and script, but putting it in colour and using contemporary actors. I'm not sure what the method to the madness was, but whatever was intended never shows itself. It's a doomed project from the opening credits and leaves itself no room to thrive as a work of its own.
Using Stefano's original script has meant that all of the writing aspects that made the original a masterpiece are intact, but it's where the misguided nature of the film becomes the most apparent. Gus Van Sant has shown himself to be a capable filmmaker with other movies, but there's simply no directing this version of Psycho into something agreeable. The identical retakes of some scenes occasionally work really well. I found myself engaged once in a while on this basis. Where the film really fails is in its miscasting. It's no surprise that Vince Vaughn's performance as Norman Bates is hammy and unsubtle, and it's obvious how bored Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen and Anne Heche are. A lack of enthusiasm is glaring among them. William H. Macy is an unexpected shining point as Arbogast, but like the others still doesn't fit the shoes of Martin Balsam.
If this remake was a student film that was only meant to be experimental or a learning task of some kind it would have been fine, but it's poor as a studio endeavour. It's not a grossly offensive remake, but suffers from a not having a reason to even exist. It might have the original's script and shots, but it has none of the spirit that made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho a classic.
My Rating: 4/10
While I can agree with most of what you said, I still like this movie. I love the original, but I say this is a valiant effort even though it pretty much fails. I don't agree that Anne Heche was bored. I think she was all in for this movie. Viggo Mortensen just made a wrong choice when he played Sam as a laid back cowboy. Julianne Moore also made a wrong choice in playing Lila as either a lesbian or as an almost Goth type who shows no emotion. I was fine with Vince Vaughn because at the time he was almost completely unknown and was not known for his many comedies. The biggest problem I had was that they changed the Bates house. The house in the original is as much as a character as Norman or Marion. This was just some big old nondescript house with no character whatsoever. The costuming was horrible and dated the movie immediately. Heche's flowery dress with matching parasol did not fit this story in the least. William H. Macy should have ditched the hat and the way "Mother" looked was almost a crime. They had better not do that in the Bates Motel version. Norma has been looking very glam and very blonde that last few seasons and I'm hoping they start to change "Mother" into more of a mother type figure instead of what Norma was. I do love that show though. Also in the remake, they updated some of the dialogue but left some the same which made no sense. At the time Marion says that her extended lunches give her boss excess acid. I don't anybody who says that nowadays. They should have changed it to acid reflux. They did change aspic to Jell-O so I was happy with that. One other thing, I think the Sheriff's wife would have called Norman directly instead of going through the switchboard or whatever. They didn't live in Mayberry and it isn't 1960 anymore. But otherwise, I'm still a fan of this remake although I do have to agree that there was no reason for it to be made.
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