One Hour Photo
Written and Directed by: Mark Romanek
Starring: Robin Williams, Eriq La Salle, Michael Vartan, Connie Nielsen, Dylan Smith, Gary Cole

The roles that Robin Williams has been taking lately are not what you would expect from him. The guy who is best known for his loveable comedic characters in family films like Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber has taken serious roles in the past and shown potential for acting dramatically, but with recent films like Insomnia and Death To Smoochy he is exploring a different, darker side of himself. At first I thought it would be annoying, just another example of Williams trying to prove his versatility as an actor, but after seeing Insomnia I realized that he is completely believable as an unstable serial killer-type. In One Hour Photo he treads a similar path and the result is, in my opinion, one of his best performances ever.

What is it about movies focusing on psychopaths and slightly deranged people that make them so compelling to us? Maybe it’s the fact that insanity allows these characters to see things that the rest of us don’t. And that is, in many ways, what One Hour Photo is all about. Sy Parrish (Robin Williams) is a photo lab technician at a department store and he takes great care in developing photos for the customers. In fact, he is a little bit obsessive about them, always working extra hard to make sure the photos come out looking as crisp and colourful as possible. He is a lonely guy, and through his job he shares in the lives of all the customers, which makes him feel happy and needed.

But his obsession goes further than that.He is not really satisfied with photos because they do not provide a complete picture of people’s lives… they neglect details that he deems important. There is one family that Sy feels particularly close to, as they have been taking their film to him for over 6 years. Whenever the Yorkins drop off some film to be developed, Sy prints off a copy for himself. As he becomes more and more fixated on them, he feels the need to be physically involved in their life… he wants to do favours for them to win them over, and he daydreams about being called “Uncle Sy”. Then he learns of some marital problems between Nina (Connie Nielsen) and Will (Michael Vartan, looking a heck of a lot like Tom Cruise here) Yorkin, and he is eventually pushed to take matters into his own hands. The cast also includes E.R.’s Eriq La Salle as a cop, and Gary Cole from Office Space as Sy’s supervisor.

It would have been easy for this movie to turn into a typical, cliched stalker flick, but Mark Romanek is too clever to let the movie fall into these traps. His direction is quite impressive for someone coming out of a music video background.

In a lot of ways One Hour Photo has a David Fincher style to it, and it reminded me a lot of his movie, Se7en. (Perhaps the connection there is that Romanek directed the Nine Inch Nails video for “Closer”.) There are many interesting camera angles and movements, lots of use of shadows, lighting and colour, and some cool special effects shots that show the insides of a camera working and film being developed in an AGFA machine. The movie has a dark, sinister look as the story progresses, but by contrast, the scenes in the department store are almost painfully bright white and sterile.

The music is also a stellar component of the film, from the edgy build-up of the orchestral score to the schizophrenic electronic beats that echo loudly when we enter Sy’s head… there’s even the laughably mindless muzak that plays in the background of the department store, and I would think that alone is enough to explain Sy’s mental instability.

Probably the thing that I liked the most about One Hour Photo is the fact that it feels realistic, which is a credit to the story and the acting. Sy’s character is not a complete nutjob from day one, and even by the time we reach the movie’s climax, we’ve really learned to empathize with the poor guy. In truth, that’s what makes his character so interesting — he’s not completely off the deep end, he’s just waded in a little farther than the average person would go. Throughout the film, Robin Williams plays this angle perfectly. He acts like a polite and reasonable human being, but then he’ll just go that one step further, and as a viewer your stomach knots up at the tension and anxiety created by his lack of social awareness and his creepy habits.

I should mention that there is one part of the story I found slightly questionable… I know that anime is all the rage with the kiddies, but do they really play with Neon Genesis Evangelion toys nowadays? Let’s be serious here!

One Hour Photo is an engaging, suspenseful and artistic thriller that once again proves that cutting edge indie films are where it’s at. Robin Williams is to be commended for his performance, and indeed, even just his involvement in this movie. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Now that this film has been given a wider release due to its success, it should be playing at a theatre near you. Just remember, after seeing this movie, you’ll be thinking twice the next time you drop off some film to be developed at your local Wal-Mart. — Sean