Have you ever really given any thought to who develops your photos? Who sees your pictures before you do? Who might be making copies from the negatives before you even get your “originals”? If any one film is an argument for getting a digital camera, it is One Hour Photo — merely because of the off-chance that someone like Sy Parrish, Robin Williams’ character, is actually out there looking at your pictures and trying to insert himself into your life.
That’s what he does to the Yorkins, an upper-class suburban family who take their rolls of undeveloped film to the local Sav-Mart photo lab. They’ve been doing so for over nine years. Sy Parrish has been processing and developing them with an almost maniacal attention to detail. Sy frequently finds himself daydreaming about a life as one of the Yorkins. He longs to have a place in their life since he seems to lack one of his own. That might not be so bad if he were harmless and his thoughts were not acted upon but Sy is slowly coming unhinged. After a series of events push him closer to the edge, Sy decides to take steps that will make him mean more to the Yorkins than just being “Sy, the Photo Guy.”
Robin Williams has played some pretty unusual characters over the course of his career. Sy Parrish is the most disturbing of them all because he’s so real. Sy could be the man behind the counter at your local convenience store, drug store or gas station. He’s mentally unstable and, thanks to Williams’ performance, he’s frighteningly believable and he’s dangerous. Not dangerous because he’s outwardly scary or possibly so, but because he’s a time bomb that can go off at any second if the right set of circumstances occur.
The cinematography and set design play large roles in making One Hour Photo so effective in its setup and execution. Sav-Mart is depicted as a fluorescent lit, soulless place with overexposed lighting and aisles of merchandise that are almost too orderly to be natural. Sy’s apartment is barren and sterile, save for a wall that features photos that Sy has made copies of over the years. The pictures bring the only color to Sy’s life — both literally and figuratively.
One Hour Photo stumbles only as it reaches its closing moments. The ending too closely resembles the type one would see on an episode of Law & Order, where the criminal in question reveals the reasons behind his or her actions. Still, the thrill of One Hour Photo is Robin Williams’ fantastic performance as Sy Parrish. One can only hope that it is not forgotten at Oscar nomination time.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
