One Hour Photo Reviews

I’m a huge Robin Williams fan. When I heard he starred in a horror film, I was both excited and confused. Why would someone like him be in a psychological horror film? I was shocked to find out he did a fantastic job portraying the psychotic but affable Sy Parrish. This movie disturbed me. Not in the way like Hostel or Salo would but rather disturbed me psychologically and that’s the first time a film like this did that!

It has been a while since I have seen this flick but I always had a weak spot for the damned thing. The first thing I really enjoyed was the way Robin Williams handled this character. Indeed, I always had a lot of respect for his work but it was just great to see him playing a completely different character and, for once, to tone down, no, to completely erase his usual hysteria. Indeed, I thought Williams was just really impressive and he received some deserved critical praise for his performance. Concerning Mark Romanek, he has built up a rather impressive career as a video-clip director and he is even considered as one of the very best in this field so it was only natural that, at some point, he would move forward with feature films. Well, even though this feature was not a masterpiece, it was still quite promising and it’s a shame that it took him 8 long years to come up with a follow-up (the also intriguing ‘Never Let Me Go’). The point is that he got involved in many projects that were either cancelled (‘The Lost Symbol’) or from which he just dropped off (‘The Wolfman’). Anyway, to conclude, even though it misses something to become truly remarkable, I thought it was a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

The plot of psicopath obsessed with being part of the family whose photos he processes is more than OK, but Williams is too histrionic in his patetism, the dreams are a repetitive trick, the suspense and visual intrigue is poor.

What my almost immediate impression was of One Hour Photo when I first read about it was simply that it just looks like another psychological thriller with nothing that changes and well, that is pretty much everything that it was but not quite as amazing as I was hoping it to be. Time and time again, we see that one character that meets someone or a group of people and begins to become deeply obsessed with them that take them down a dangerous road and we can almost guarantee what will happen and, quite frankly, there was nothing massively different or anything even really exciting or tense about One Hour Photo I mean, yeah it is decent but definitely not one of the best thrillers out there.


Sy Parrish (Williams), who makes this observation, adversely leads a lonely life, operating a photo lab in a SavMart department store. He escapes his dreary reality through the family photos of Nancy Yorkin (Nielsen) and her family. His admiration of the Yorkins becomes an obsession, as he fashions himself as Uncle Sy to little Jake (Smith). Sy's judgment becomes impaired by his unhealthy interest, causing him to lose his job of 11 years. As his final day approaches, Sy develops photographs revealing an indiscretion on the part of Mr. Yorkin (Vartan). The unstable Sy now develops a disturbing, calculated plan to install family values to the Yorkin clan.


Ok, I will admit that seeing Robin Williams with blonde hair was rather unusual because it really didn't suit him but he played a mad man in Insomnia which was in fact released the exact same year as One Hour Photo and was curious about how Robin would deliver in this one. I did find Sy a good character as well as Robin's performance but he neither expressed anything new to the screen nor bought back memories of great performances by actors in similar films such as this. I am a fan of Robin Williams but I just don't think it was an entirely amazing performance like I have seen from him in the past. I did like the emotional bond between Sy and Jake because Sy really is desperate for affection and he never seems to get it off anybody seeing as he is pretty much alone and because Jake gets closer but begins to sort of reject what Sy tries to help him with, the psychological side of things begin.


Mark Romanek, first of all, who are you? I had almost no recognition of what you have done or what you will do in the future apart from this film. Actually, there is just one: Never Let Me Go. Anyway, your work on One Hour Photo was extraordinary unlike anything that I have ever watched but I will confess that it wasn't all fantastic and unbelievable as many have said about it. The directing was great especially in the lab scenes and I really liked the script too.


Overall, One Hour Photo is a film that I find rather overrated but still a decent film to at least try. It isn't anything special but it isn't anything that should be criticised so heavily so it leans more on good than bad for me but only slightly. One thing, though, if you're a fan of Robin Williams, I think you'll really like this one.