Disturbing. That is the least I could say about this movie. Do not be fooled by the fact that Robin Williams is the star of the film, since it has absolutely nothing to do with his previous comic work. It looks as if he was in search of some challenge to his acting abilities that could push him beyond the feel good type of comedy he had somehow been limited too during his career. Well, if that was the intention, there is little doubt Williams made the right choice. One Hour Photo cannot be classified so easily into any of the comfortable categories we regularly use to discuss movies. It offers intrigue, a serious portrayal of its characters and a very original but nonintrusive aesthetics, at the same time that it manages to look like a thriller towards the end. Yet, its most defining characteristic is, perhaps, the fact that it manages to entertain without resorting to the cheap and shallow tricks we grew accustomed to after so many years of swallowing Hollywood products.

Seymour "Sy" Parrish works for a one-hour photo lab at Sav-Mart, a large shopping mall in some American upper-middle class suburb. He loves the work he has done for over 20 years, and likes to pay very close attention to all the details of the process of developing pictures. The photo lab is not only his work place for this old man, but his whole life, always treating customers with that extra personal touch that makes him look like a tender old grandpa. However, behind this affable persona there is a much more disturbing reality. Sy has no family, no friends, and turns to the craftmanship of developing pictures as a way to give meaning to his life. When the camera follows him to his apartment, we discover that among the bare walls and nondescriptive furniture he has been collecting pictures of this single family throughout many years, reaching the point where he himself does not distinguish between reality and dream and honestly believes to be intimately linked to their lives, almost as a relative. The problem begins when he accidentally finds out that the husband in that family is cheating on his wife, and Sy takes it personally.

Nina: You've been doing my pictures for a long time.
Sy: I almost feel like "Uncle Sy!"

This is Mark Romanek's first film. Previously, he had been shooting music videos, and to some extent there is a trace of that in the movie. His aesthetics still contains the dynamism, the permanent motion and switch to new angles, the direct style that characterizes short music videos, in spite of the fact that this is not a fast paced movie at all. It is precisely this that manages to keep us on our toes without resorting to the hectic chases that we see everywhere on the screens these days. Romanek maintains the tension by the sheer power and creepiness of the images which only a very mature director is capable of achieving, hence the surprise to learn that this is his first film. While watching the pictures shot at the mall, the extraordinary whiteness of everything is what stays in our minds, therefore carving in our perception a memory of a very clean, ordered, aseptic place: a modern shopping mall. When the camera accompanies Sy to his apartment, we also see bare walls, perfectly ordered appliances and tools, a white kitchen, everything is just as well organized as in the mall... until we notice all those pictures spread over a wall in the living room, of course. Then, the creepy life behind all the apparent normalcy takes over us.

But what about Robin Williams? Do not be fooled into watching this movie based on what you saw of him before in films like Mrs. Doubtfire or The Birdcage. This is a far more mature actor, and one who obviously revelled in the opportunity to take on an acting challenge. Taking into account how Robin Williams has pretty much become stereotyped into the category of family comedy, one has to admire the guts he had to take on a role like this. The director gave him a hand by using some heavy make-up to completely blur Williams' well known face, but there is little doubt the actor still had to put a lot of effort to reach the level of serious acting that he reaches here. Both Romanek and Williams manage to portray a character in "Sy" Parrish that mixes the affability of an old grandpa who loves kids with the unpleasant sensation that this is a very weird person indeed. The end result is a character that is as rich as the people we meet in real life, instead of the lightly brushed personalities we see all too often on the screen these days. Yes, we leave with a very clear sense that what "Sy" was doing was morally wrong, but at the same time we cannot avoid feeling a certain sympathy towards him. There is no epic simplification here, no obsession with painting a world in black and white, good and evil, even though that does not mean an abdication from presenting what is morally wrong as such. A lesson that modern day America, so much in love with the concept of moral clarity, might do well to heed.

Finally, the movie also contains some interesting philosophical musings on the meaning of photography in our lifes:

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word "snapshot" was originally a hunting term.

... or...

If pictures have anything to say, it's this: I was here, I existed. I was young and happy and someone cared enough about me to take my picture. (...) Nobody takes a picture of something they want to forget.

... or...

Most people don't take snapshots of the little things. The used Band-Aid, the guy at the gas station, the wasp on the Jell-O. But these are the things that make up the true picture of our lives. People don't take pictures of these things.

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Entertainment factor:6/10
Artistic factor:6/10

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