An unsettling portrait of loneliness and deep despair.
One Hour Photo (2002)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for One Hour Photo
Williams's exacting performance -- not a note of it is unconsidered -- makes us feel more for Sy than we'd like to.
It begins by scaring you to death by evoking a monster, and by the end it has seduced you into caring for him.
Together, Williams and Romanek have made a stalker thriller that's as much in sympathy with the loneliness and alienation of the putative villain as it is with the jeopardy of his potential victims.
It's good enough that this is one picture you won't be able to get out of your mind.
This could have been a modest classic, but writer Romanek turned the suspense of artful neurosis toward pulpy psychosis.
Williams absolutely nails Sy's queasy infatuation and overall strangeness.
For all its merits, One Hour Photo winds up as just another exercise in genre, although an assured and effective one.
Romanek keeps adding flourishes -- artsy fantasy sequences -- that simply feel wrong. They cheapen the overall effect.
Williams finally gets a role so smartly written we forget not only that we are watching Williams the dramatic actor, but that we are watching Williams at all.
A thought-provoking, artful accomplishment by writer/director Mark Romanek, who reveals a powerfully understated vision of the haunting loneliness behind the forced cheerfulness of the discount store.
Williams has now proven that he can play creepy with the best of them.
There are weird resonances between actor and role here, and they're not exactly flattering.
(Williams) has never slipped this far under the radar, and the result is a spooky, unsettling performance.
A finely nuanced character study of insecurity and suppressed malevolence.
A wonderfully creepy tale [containing] another Oscar worthy performance by Robin Williams.
Romanek keeps the film constantly taut...reflecting the character's instability with a metaphorical visual style and an unnerving, heartbeat-like score.
Latest News for One Hour Photo
December 03, 2008:
Mark Romanek to Direct Alex Garland's Never Let Me Go ![]()
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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