本片根据史蒂芬·雷贝洛出版于1998年的同名纪实文学改编。
记录了希区柯克(安东尼·霍普金斯 Anthony Hopkins 饰)为《精神病患者》的拍摄所付出的种种努力。在电影的拍摄过程中,他与妻子阿尔玛(海伦·米伦 Helen Mirren 饰)的关系也变成了大家关注的焦点。
此后《精神病患者》成为了希区柯克经典代表作之一,该片讲述了女演员珍妮特·李(斯嘉丽·约翰逊 Scarlett Johansson)扮演的女秘书Marion,在卷走了老板的钱之后逃到一家偏僻的汽车旅馆,结果被由安东尼·珀金斯(詹姆斯·达西 James D’Arcy 饰)演的有精神分裂症的旅店老板Norman残忍杀死。她在片中惊恐尖叫的场景已经成为电影史上最让人难以忘记的画面之一,她也因此获得了当年金球奖和奥斯卡最佳女配角奖的提名。
In this powerful documentary, Mama Yang, an 84-year-old woman living in New York, finds herself in correspondence with 45 high security prison inmates she views as her own children. Most are Chinese American immigrants, and see in Mama Yang a mother figure they never knew before they stepped through prison walls.
For Mama Yang though, the story is about more than Christian charity. She had already lived a full life in Taiwan when her husband died at age sixty and her son lost their house in a financial blunder. She moved to the US to start anew and lives with a Taiwanese American granddaughter that remains distant. In a film marked by family separations, Mama Yang writes letters – whether to the incarcerated or to her own granddaughter – to heal lifetimes of wounds.