One Hour Photo
Cast
Robin Williams .... Seymour "Sy" Parrish
Connie Nielsen .... Nina Yorkin
Michael Vartan .... Will Yorkin
Dylan Smith .... Jake Yorkin
Erin Daniels .... Maya Burson
Directed by
Mark Romanek
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
7/10. One Hour Photo has what many critics hailed as Robin Williams's
greatest acting job. I don't think so. Although he's excellent in his
role as Sy the Photo Guy, he still excels at doing comedy in movies
like Mrs. Doubtfire. Photo is music video director Mark Romanek's
first movie was writer-director, and it's very distinctive that it
is. It's hard to explain, it just looks like a rookie operation.
Williams plays Sy, a photo clerk at SavMart, a Target type place. He
loves his job very much, and his customers more so. His favorite
family includes the Yorkins, Nina (Connie Nielsen), Will (Michael
Vartan) and Jake (Dylan Smith), who Sy thinks is a perfect family. He
makes extra copies of their photos for himself, and in his apartment
he has a wall filled with their cherished memories. However, Nina and
Will are on shaky ground, presumably about money, but we can't really
tell. When Sy realizes this, and something else that's quite obvious,
he doesn't like how he's been misled. And he gets angry. This shy
soul doesn't like that, and he's going to do something about it.
The greatest pro and the greatest con both involve Romanek's script.
Romanek has created almost a fantasy world, where it seems that
everything is going right. The story is so original it seems like it
could have been a true story. The character of Sy rings so true, it
shows that we all know a Sy somewhere in our lives, yet we don't take
the time to notice him. However, the supporting characters were some
of the most uninteresting I have seen in a movie this year. I didn't
care about the Yorkin family one bit. Not only that, but there was no
development of the Yorkins. What did Will do that we were supposed to
know? We didn't know. What about anything about Nina or Jake? I have
no idea. I wanted less of the Yorkins and more of Sy.
A reason it is apparent that Romanek is a auteur director is that he
expects all scenes that could be thrilling to be thrilling. They
could have been made tense but instead Romanek just assumes that we
think it is. Although that scene, bound to be famous soon, in the
hotel room at the end was, the rest of the movie wasn't. Williams
showed yet again how versatile he is; he can star in comedy or drama
with perfect ease. He was superb. However, all of the Yorkin family
came off dull and flat. Gary Cole, as the one-note boss, was way
better than people should be in supporting roles like that. Overall,
One Hour Photo is an interesting drama with great lead acting.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated R for sexual content and language.
Running time: 96 minutes
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