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ONE HOUR PHOTO Send This Review to a Friend
A chilling, creepy thriller with an affecting performance by Robin Williams playing eerily against type is the first feature of writer-director Mark Romanek. Although Romanek has been making music videos, "One Hour Photo" has none of the frenzy associated with that profession. The writer-director understates nearly everything, moving quietly and cautiously as he tiptoes through a bizarre story about a lonely, envious photo processor who becomes emotionally entwined in the lives of a family whose photos he develops.
The film begins with Seymour "Sy" Parrish under arrest, but what crime has he committed? Asked why he hated someone so much as to do what he did, before he can answer, we get the flashback into his strange life. The tale unravels so expertly with acting to match by Williams and the supporting cast that there is suspense throughout building up to the crime. I have one qualm about the final choice made. There's a point at which the story should end, but as if not to trust the audience, Romanek applies a finishing touch with Williams answering the question asked at the beginning. It is totally unnecessary, a heavy-handed add-on that we don't need because we should already understand perfectly Sy's motivation without his having to explain.
But otherwise, this is a gem of a suspense film, written intelligently and prompting conjecture as to what is going to happen. Everything is built solidly on character. You read stories about someone who commits a crime, and like many, Sy is the quiet friendly, kind guy neighbors generally describe. But there's something askew. His lonely life leads him to transfer the feelings he'd like to have for a family of his own onto a family whose life he has followed through photographs. We get the idea when Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) and her young son Jake (Dylan Smith) drop off film at the photo of SavMart, where Sy works, and ask for two sets. He marks down 3, the extra set being for him.
Williams, with close-cropped blondish hair, is a model of control opposite of the manic personality he exhibits when doing his comedy. He elicits compassion for Sy as he makes us feel the character's loneliness and empty life. This makes it all the more scary as we follow him and the intense way in which he relates to Nina Yorkin and her husband Will (Michael Vartan) and attempts to insinuate himself into the family. There's one particular sequence that is ultra weird as Sy thinks of himself as an uncle to Jake. Sy sees the Yorkins as the perfect unit, but we see that all is not perfect behind the happy façade. This is as much as you need to know, maybe even too much,
Follow the rest yourself in what emerges as the best suspense yarn in a while. You may be inspired to start developing your own films, or go digital. "One Hour Photo" makes high profile stuff like "Signs" seem silly by comparison. If Romanek can leap from music videos and TV commercials to this, his career is surely worth following to see what he comes up with in the future. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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