Rapid Review: One Hour Photo (2002)

“According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word “snapshot” was originally a hunting term.”
– Sy Parrish

SYNOPSIS: An employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family. – via IMDB

This was definitely a movie I enjoyed Robin Williams in. I know he freaked my other half out a bit, he kept on waiting for Williams to crack jokes and stuff, and instead he got a really creepy, weird, lonely and obsessed stalker dude. However, the film itself isn’t bad, and it keeps you entertained for the duration. It is not a movie that can be rewatched a lot, it is something you can go back to every now and then over the years. The dream sequence Sy has (if you’ve seen this, you will know) is likely the most memorable scene out of this, and it all came together rather well. Sometimes the acting was a little wooden, but Williams certainly delivered. He managed to find a way to have you pity him, and yet at the same time he repulses you and you resent him. There were times where I just wanted to shout at the characters because of how stupid they are, I mean really, if someone chatted with me the way Sy did members of that family, alarm bells would be going ballistic! As always, it was nice to see Gary Cole here, I do like the man. Something that did not jibe is the way that Sy is telling us that photos only capture the great memories, and not the bad (granted), and we see the very happy Yorkin family. All this is going fine, and they are together, and laughing at pictures and all, then next thing we know Will and Nina are fighting. I understand what they were trying to show (as he was talking about only the good being captured on film), but it wasn’t implemented well at all. It felt like a sudden and ridiculous thing seeing them fight, and jarring. No little things to build up to it, just a sudden disagreement. This movie is chilling on some levels, but fails in other places to really and truly make that resonate. It is a good film, but it falls short of being a great film. One Hour Photo is not one that a lot of people have seen (here by me at any rate), but it is definitely one worth looking into if you have never seen it, or to check out again if you haven’t seen it in a while.