|
One Hour Photo
One Hour Photo
|
4 Stars
|
Rating
|
R for sexual content and language
|
 |
Director
|
Mark Romanek
|
 |
Reely Creepy
|
 |
Starring
|
Robin Williams
|
Connie Nielsen
|
Michael Vartan
|
Gary Cole
|
Erin Daniels
|
Eriq La Salle
|
Paul Hansen Kim
|
Fans of Robin Williams who loved his creepy role in "Insomnia", the detective story with Al Pacino set in Alaska, will like this even more. Williams plays Sy, a long time photo processor at a one-hour photo shop located a Wal Mart type store called SavMart. He has no personal life other than enjoying the world through the pictures he develops. When Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) brings in pictures of her son's birthday party for processing, Sy not only knows their name but their address. Sy is the service person you meet in public that is into a little too much of your personal business.
When Maya (Erin Daniels) brings unprocessed film to the store, Sy thinks he's seen her before and when he makes small talk with her, it appears that he is either mistaken in his self absorbed silliness or he's trying to strike up a conversation with an attractive woman.
A number of things happen to tell us that Sy might be not only a little strange and self absorbed into his job but possibly on the road to going insane and playing it out as a serial killer. He has an extra copy of Nina's prints made for his own personal use. When looking at them in a restaurant and a waitress asks him if they are his family, he says "yes". Later we see that one of his walls at home is filled with pictures of Nina's family. After spotting a picture of Maya on the wall, he becomes curious about the reality of the perfect family that he heretofore thought that Will (Michael Vartan) and Nina are living. At work he looks through the prints of Maya that are ready to be picked up that sets him on a course which explains why he was being interrogated by Detective James Van Der Zee (Eriq La Salle) right after the opening credits.
"One Hour Photo" is interesting in many of its observations and masterful with respect to the ending. Groups pictures at funerals notwithstanding, people tend to take pictures only of happy times. "No one takes photos of something they want to forget." Photos are for future generations because they are taken because " …I was here and someone cared enough to take my picture…". Insight is provided on how a person crosses the line from being eccentric to insane.
One of the reasons people loved "The Sixth Sense" was that so many things became clear about prior events in the film when you saw the ending. It was satisfaction you get when completing a puzzle. Pay close attention to the words spoken by Detective Van Der Zee in the opening scenes and that will help you decide what was real or not at the ending when Sy is once again in the interrogation room. Is Sy a delusional creepy stalker who has done no harm or is he a killer? That's for you to decide.
George O. Singleton © 2002
|
|
|
|