ONE HOUR PHOTO A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2002 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
Seymour "Sy" Parrish (Robin Williams) has worked at the SavMart Photo Finishing department for eleven years. He takes great pride in his work, and goes out of his way to make his customers happy, especially the Yorkins--an upgraded set of 5 x 7 prints here, a free disposable camera for the birthday boy there. Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) and her son Jake (Dylan Smith) come into the store almost every day, and Sy has become almost like an uncle to them, at least in *his* mind. This lonely, deluded individual has convinced himself he's part of something bigger. Two unrelated events are about to change the course of events dramatically. First, Sy processes a set of pictures that show Nina's husband Will (Michael Vartan) involved with another woman and soon afterwards Sy is fired from his position by his coldhearted boss (Gary Cole) when the print counts don't add up (needless to say Sy has been making an extra set of the Yorkin's prints for donkey's years--you'd have thought SavMart would have caught on a little sooner). It's at this point that Sy snaps. Former video director Mark Romanek fashions his contemporary thriller in even, predictable ways (don't even bother worrying about Sy's raison d?être--it's as obvious as a midget at an NBA playoff game) but fills it with enough interesting elements to warrant our attention--the headache-inducing whites and blues of the photo lab, Sy's dangerously crisp trouser creases, the one-hour stalker's unusual approach to home decorating, and Williams's performance itself, sad, measured, and strikingly subdued, with Sy, at times, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Larry Olivier's deranged dentist in "Marathon Man." "One Hour Photo" is glossy to be sure but with that rather obvious wrap-up this 95-minute film is pretty much done after sixty minutes.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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========== X-RAMR-ID: 32754 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 762261 X-RT-TitleID: 1115942 X-RT-SourceID: 878 X-RT-AuthorID: 1393 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4
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