Film Review: One Hour Photo

In a summer of few quality films, a few small, independent films, such as The Good Girl and the very popular My Big Fat Greek Wedding have gained enough audience support to make their way from the art house cinema to local theaters. The latest of these is One Hour Photo, a dark film about obsession and how an unobtrusive stranger can turn into a criminal threat.

Robin Williams, in his third dark character of 2002, plays Sy Parrish, a shy, socially incompetent photo lab clerk at SavMart. where he has worked for several years, developing the photographs of several regular customers, whom he has come to know very well through their pictures. In the course of his long service at SavMart, Sy develops an unhealthy and growing obsession with a particular family, the Yorkins. It becomes apparent that Sy has been following the family and collecting their photographs for about ten years and fantasizing about what it would be like to be part of the family. As the film progresses, Sy begins to cross the line into the lives of the Yorkins, spying on the family, running into them at lunch breaks, attending the child's soccer game, and trying to buy the child gifts. When his erratic behavior attracts the attention of his boss and Sy gets fired, his world begins to unravel. The final blow, however, is delivered when Sy discovers that the Yorkins' world is not as perfect as it appears in pictures. Sy then moves from being just creepy to being a potential threat.

Robin Williams gives a good performance as Sy. He is both pathetic and really unnerving. One cannot help both feeling sorry for this character and simultaneously wanting to buy a digital camera or develop your own film. The rest of the cast is adequate. Michael Vartan ("Alias") and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator) represent the picture of the perfect family well, being so photogenic, and it is easy to see why Sy was attracted to the seemingly happy couple and their child. Both actors, particularly Connie Nielsen, also manage to show the strain underneath the polished, content surface.

One Hour Photo is written and directed by Mark Romanek and is his second feature film, although he has directed music videos and worked on video documentaries for artists such as Madonna, R.E.M., and, most notably Nine Inch Nails. Romanek presents a rather creepy vision of the world of a disturbed man and the contrast between that world and the world of others. Even though the Yorkins' marriage is troubled, they have a life filled with color and warmth. Sy's world is as bleak as that of the SavMart and he lives in the same stark white surroundings, save only the pictures he has collected from the Yorkins. The contrast in the environments really highlights how different and alienated from society Sy is-and that adds to the threat he seems to pose.

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