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Amazon.co.uk Review
Director and screenwriter Mark Romanek, previously best known for his Nine Inch Nails and Madonna music videos, has made a stylish, distinctive entry into the world of mainstream movies; the film combines an ever-intensifying sense of menace with some unconventional shocks that never descend into clichés. Refreshingly, the film is presented from Parrish's point of view rather than the Yorkins', and it's a real (if disquieting) treat to see Williams ditch his usual bumbling buffoon character and get another meaty role to sink his teeth into. Eschewing the formulas and devices of the standard thriller with bleak effectiveness, One Hour Photo is a far more intelligent proposition than most of its peers--though it may be a disappointment to those expecting visceral thrills.
On the DVD: One Hour Photo's beautifully austere photography and skilful use of colour translates excellently to the DVD's anamorphic widescreen format. The stylish menu screens have a photo-processing theme with stills and film footage; the extras comprise an informative and often amusing commentary from Romanek and Williams, a 25-minute Sundance Channel "Anatomy of a Scene" feature, a 12-minute Cinemax featurette, and an in-depth and entertaining half-hour interview with director and star from New York's acclaimed Charlie Rose show. The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and both movie and commentary are subtitled in English only. --Rikki Price
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There's no dimly lit horror scenes here, only bleak, bright white and sterile environments which help to portray the precise, yet barren territory of Sy's mind. Something happened with this film which made it greater than the sum of its parts, and in my mind it's one of the most disturbing films I've seen, purely because of the lasting effect it has. I feel that somewhere, Sy is still living in his fantasy of the perfect family....
Sy Parrish's job means everything to him; as a photo developer at a large retail store, he develops customers' pictures with great care and professionalism. Outside of his photo development domain, he is bland and invisible, a man truly alone. His life could not be more different from the lives he sees day by day in the pictures he develops - in the pictures of happy families, he sees everything he wants but cannot have. Thus, it almost seems natural that he would begin to fantasize about being a part of such a life, to have a family of his own. His favorite family is the Yorkins, a seemingly perfect young couple with one son. Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) is one of Sy's best customers; she's always bringing in pictures to be developed. Having watched the Yorkin family evolve over a number of years, Sy has adopted them as his own, making his own copies of all their pictures. He knows Nina, her husband Will (Michael Vartan), and son Jake (Dylan Smith) intimately through their photos; he knows where they live, what their house is like, and all sorts of additional personal details about them. In his own mind, he is Uncle Sy to Jake, and he tries to insinuate himself into the Yorkins' lives at just the time his own real life is beginning to fragment. His job is no longer secure, and it is during this troubled time that he discovers that the Yorkins are not the ideal family after all. That discovery is just more than he can take.
This is not the kind of role you associate with Robin Williams, but there can be no doubt that this man is among the most accomplished of actors. All of the natural energy Williams suppresses in his transformation to the externally calm, quiet, rather forgettable Sy Parrish lends his performance a power that few other actors could bring to such a role. Writer and director Mark Romanek gave Williams a completely different look, and the set design and cinematography reinforces that directorial vision to lend the movie a sense of hyperreality that proves as unsettling as Sy's descent into mental disconnection. The acting is superb all the way around, but Williams clearly steals the show with one of the most impressive performances I've seen in a long time.
Topped off by a writer/director/actor commentary, a really well-made behind-the-scenes featurette, an "Anatomy of a Scene" Sundance Channel Featurette, and an extensive interview with Robin Williams and Mark Romanek on The Charlie Rose Show, One Hour Photo easily qualifies as a must-own DVD.
Robin Williams' acting is stellar... so much so that I doubt I will ever be able to watch him comfortably in a comedy again. To me, he will be forever Sy Parrish, the blond, blue-eyed stalker who carries throughout the film a sense of desperate loneliness, evolving slowly but surely into full-blown psychosis. As other reviewers have mentioned, one of the remarkable things about this movie is the sympathy we cannot help but feel with Parrish. It is comparable in this respect to "Se7en", in that the "bad guy" is in fact an intelligent and somewhat understandable character (although of course their actions are abhorrent.)
The final scene of the film stays with me always. I cannot recommend this film enough... If you're looking for a truly creepy watch, "One Hour Photo" is quite simply a masterpiece.
Robin Williams career has been awash with hit and miss films, but with One Hour Photo he proves that if he thinks long and hard about what role he takes,with a good... Read more
a person with a strange fixation on them who they had dificulty in shaking off. Read more
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