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| One Hour Photo |
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  (9/10)
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Runtime: 98 |
| Public Rating: 7.92 (38 votes) |
Director: Mark Romanek |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama/Thriller |
Year: 2002 |
| Writer(s): Mark Romanek |
| Reviewed by: Greg C. |
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"One Hour Photo" is probably the first film in the past 15 years or more to actually show us a psychopath that could very likely exist in real life. This is not a generic serial killer, or a faceless murderer. He is not obsessed with becoming a women, eating body parts, or mimicking other killers. In fact, his insanity stems from his desire to be a normal everyday guy.
Robin Williams turns in a intense, quietly brilliant performance as Sy Parrish, a man whose life is completely void of any sort of love and compassion but desperately wishes he could feel it. Sy works at the local Sav-Mart, a sickingly sterile & bland convience store that seems like ever suburbenite's worst nightmare. It is here that the cinematography is at its most impressive level-- depending on Sy's ever changing mood almost dictates how we see the store-- when he's feeling about as normal as he'll ever feel, the store almost looks normal, but the more downward Sy's life spirals, the more sterile and glaringly white and ugly the store becomes.
As Sy, Williams completely disappears from sight, perfectly portraying this shell of a man, one who, in another life, may have been a kind and gentle person, but in this one, because so much has caused him pain and grief that he cannot find any joy in his life. There is a crack in his soul, like he was brought into this world and then was not given a reason for existing. Very rarely does an actor get the chance to dive this deeply into something this disturbing (made all the creepier by the fact that there are aspects of Sy that any person can relate to,) and Williams pulls it off in flying colors.
Sy finds his sole outlet of comfort in a family he has been developing pictures for for over 10 years, the Yorkins. They are the example of a perfect family, or at least, so Sy thinks. Sy wants nothing more than to be a part of their family, because he is unaware of the tension between the mother and the father. He thinks they are perfect because all he's ever seen of them is their photographs, which he points out in one of his many voice-over narration: "People take photographs of happy days, such as weddings, birthdays, Christmas a child's birthday party. You never see anyone take a photograph of anything they want to forget, because photographs are our only way to preserve our memories, to say 'I was there, I existed, and someone cared enough about me to take my picture.'"
Sy has become so obbsses with the Yorkins that he has made copies of every roll of pictures the mom brings by-- he hangs them neatly on his wall in his seedy downtown apartment, staring at them, analyzing them, deluding himself that he is "Uncle Sy", and will one day be happy.
Sy's little fantasy about the Yorkins being perfect come crashing down when he discovers that the husband is cheating on Ms. Yorkin. That very same day, Sy's boss finds out about the duplicates Sy made, and promptly fires him. Sy, who makes it clear at the begining how much he loves his work, suddenly has nothing left to hold onto. His small, tiny nook in the world that made him feel normal is now gone, and that's where I'm gonna leave you in this review-- it's best that you know nothing more than the setup for the movie.
The film, helmed by newcomer Mark Romanek (who is best known for his Nine Inch Nails "Closer" video), looks gorgeous-- the cinematography, as noted before, is stunningly vivid in its use of colors-- especially in one nightmare sequence Sy has that will give you a whole new meaning of the term "red eye". The film's direction and camera movments succeed in building the tension, and the last few instense scenes of the movie are fast paced and sharply edited, but never to the point that it's a distraction (like a Michael Bay movie.) This is a solid semi-debut for Romanek (evidently, he had a 1985 student film that was never put out in theatres,) and I hope that he keeps up the great work.
As supporting cast goes, no one is ever really fleshed out, except for Connie Neilson (Gladiator) as Ms. Yorkin. Eriq LaSalle (TV's E.R.) has a nice bit part as the detective who figures out what Sy's up to when it's too late, but beyond that the film centers almost entirly on Sy and his meltdown as his life self-destructs before him.
After years of doing such friendly fare as "Patch Adams", Williams proves that he can be funny(Death to Smoochy,) he can be serious(Insomnia,) and now, with One Hour Photo, he can scare the bejeezzus out of you.
Rated R for extensive laguange and graphic scenes & images.
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