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Movies / On DVD / One Hour Photo
One Hour Photo

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One Hour Photo (2002)

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Reviews Counted:190

Fresh:155

Rotten:35

Average Rating:7.1/10

Consensus: Robin Williams is every effective in this creepy thriller.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Viewed through our photographs, it would seem we have lived a joyous, leisurely existence. Sy Parrish (Robin Williams), who makes this observation, adversely leads a lonely life, operating a photo... Viewed through our photographs, it would seem we have lived a joyous, leisurely existence. Sy Parrish (Robin 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 (Connie Nielsen) and her family. His admiration of the Yorkins becomes an obsession, as he fashions himself as Uncle Sy to little Jake (Dylan 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 (Michael Vartan). The unstable Sy now develops a disturbing, calculated plan to instill family values to the Yorkin clan. Much of ONE HOUR PHOTO takes place inside a department store similar to a Wal-Mart, bordered in an icy blue. This cold atmosphere creates a solitary framework for the disturbed photo developer Sy Parrish, played with a melancholic detachment by Williams, working here against type. Director Mark Romanek (STATIC) has created a thriller with little violence. Instead, it is permeated with an uncomfortable fear emanating from its damaged protagonist. [More]

Starring: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole

Starring: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, Eriq La Salle, Dylan Smith, Nick Searcy

Director: Mark Romanek

Director: Mark Romanek
Screenwriter: Mark Romanek
Producer: Christine Vachon, Stanley J. Wlodkowski, Pamela Koffler
Composer: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

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Reviews for One Hour Photo

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

The craftsmanship is so strenuously neat that every frame should be awarded a gold star, but there isn't a breath of spontaneous life.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
09/03/02
Peter Matthews
Peter Matthews
Sight and Sound

It has arresting things to say about how the family photo is used less to record than to project, and how far that projection can be from the truth.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The stylistic flourishes are there, but they're done quietly and slowly, and besides, our attention is drawn to Williams. This is a fascinating and piercing character study, unpredictable in small ways that are made to seem vitally important.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
10/08/02
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic

Robin Williams has thankfully ditched the saccharine sentimentality of Bicentennial Man in favour of an altogether darker side.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
09/23/02
Laura Bushell
Laura Bushell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Oddly-moving, slow-burning thriller with a career-best performance from Robin Williams. Yes, that’s right. Robin Williams.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Former video director Mark Romanek has written and directed a very entertaining, if overdesigned movie.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
11/19/02
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Williams gauges the performance perfectly, starting out as a kind of Forrest Gump character but getting deeper and richer as the plot turns until we are both terrified of him and worried for him.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
08/29/02
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

No review available.

comment Comment
04/05/03
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

Lacking [intellectual interest] and lacking the thrills, "One Hour Photo" is more like an underexposed snapshot.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
08/20/02
Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net

Romanek pointlessly tries to justify Sy’s behavior: we’re supposed to believe that Sy is only crazy because he had an unhappy childhood.

Full Review Source: East Hampton Independent | comment Comment
09/24/02
Ben Kenigsberg
Ben Kenigsberg
East Hampton Independent

The director, Mark Romanek, aims for Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and doesn't even hit the guilty highs of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

Full Review Source: KFOR Channel 4 News | comment Comment
01/16/03
Blake Davis
Blake Davis
KFOR Channel 4 News

It's a stalker flick where things like empathy or suspense or horror have not been allowed to disturb the pristine achievement of the surface.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
08/21/02
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor
Salon.com

This could have been a modest classic, but writer Romanek turned the suspense of artful neurosis toward pulpy psychosis.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
08/30/02
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

I'm glad Williams is taking chances. I wish Romanek had shown an adventurous spirit to match.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
08/23/02
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

Romanek keeps adding flourishes -- artsy fantasy sequences -- that simply feel wrong. They cheapen the overall effect.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
08/30/02
Eric Harrison
Eric Harrison
Houston Chronicle

While unsettling, it's also chilly and unmoving. One has to admire its craftsmanship, but in the end it proves oddly unsatisfying--not unlike Williams' performance in it.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
08/20/02
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

One Hour Photo may be better suited for the 24 hour rental than an evening at the movie theater.

Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
08/17/02
Geoffrey Kleinman
Geoffrey Kleinman
DVDTalk.com

A series of immaculately composed shots of Patch Adams quietly freaking out does not make for much of a movie.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
08/26/02
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

It tries (at a much too leisurely pace) to build dramatic tension, managing only to feel draggy.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

Creepy but unconvincing.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
09/13/02
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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Latest News for One Hour Photo

December 03, 2008: Mark Romanek to Direct Alex Garland's Never Let Me Go Opens in new window
Prolific commercial and music video director Mark Romanek, who most recently directed One Hour Photo in 2002, will helm Alex Garland's Never Let Me Go, the film adaptation of... More...

February 09, 2007: Mark Romanek to Direct New "Wolf Man"
We mentioned this story a while back, I believe, but now we have some solid progress, so here we go again: Universal is hot to remake "The Wolf Man," which would... More...

October 05, 2006: Critical Consensus: "Departed" Is Best Reviewed Wide Release of 2006
This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon), chainsaw massacres in Texas... More...

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