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It’s the digital age of photography, but many of us are still using 35mm film and one hour photo processing. After watching Mark Romanek’s movie debut, One Hour Photo, I’m seriously considering buying a digital camera from the local Best Buy. The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Festival, but it had a limited theater release back in August.
One Hour Photo is a film that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud. It’s about a photo processing clerk, played by Robin Williams, who becomes obsessed with one of his regular customers at the SavMart. They are the picture of a perfect family, and Williams’s character fantasizes himself as an extended member of their family. He has copies of all the photos that they’ve ever had developed, and he has them in frames and on his walls. He even shows them to strangers claiming to be an uncle.
Williams’s performance as Sy Parrish is downright creepy, and the film itself provides a lot of contrasts and contradictions that build on the suspense. Romanek’s color choices in this film truly stand out by being very bright and rich in texture. The vibrant schemes are the type usually seen in musicals, but this film is nothing like The Music Man or Singing in the Rain.
Williams’s powerful portrayal hinges on the fact that he makes the audience actually feel sympathy for his character. Sy just wants to have a life like the Yorkins, the family he’s obsessed with. We watch as he attempts to befriend the mother and son, and even though we know that he is manipulative, it’s hard not to feel bad for what he doesn’t have.
The film takes a nasty twist when Parrish is fired from his job, and then he discovers that Mrs. Yorkin’s husband is cheating on her. The film’s dark tone becomes even more prominent, and there are surprises that I won’t give away. The ending of this film is satisfying, and the extras that come with the DVD are a definite bonus. There is commentary from writer/director Mark Romanek and star Robin Williams. The feature shows that ran on The Sundance Channel and Cinemax are on here, and you can see Williams and Romanek’s appearance on the Charlie Rose Show.
To see more of Mark Romanek’s work, I recommend the following music videos: Nine Inch Nails “Closer” and “Perfect Drug” and Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” and “Rain.”
If you want to see more of Robin Williams’s darker roles/films, I recommend Insomnia, Death to Smoochy, and What Dreams May Come.
