Through A Lens Darkly
Explore the Seedy Side of Photo Finishing

There are certain privacies we give up every day without thinking about it. When we call the pizza place to deliver, we give them our name and phone number. But when we take our photos to be developed, we give a total stranger a very intimate glimpse of our lives. It is this shared privacy that is explored and exploited in the new film One Hour Photo.

Robin Williams has been playing darker roles in his advancing years. The madcap comedian of the 1980s has given way to an amazing character actor who has played a teacher, doctor, killer, and now a voyeur. While Williams is hardly likable as Sy Parrish, he takes a character that could be as two-dimensional as a tic-tac-toe board and makes him complex, intriguing, and ultimately very frightening.

Sy Parrish is a photo developer in a suburban SavMart store (and yes, SavMart looks remarkably like WalMart). As the photo developer, Sy has a chance to view the world of his customers through their pictures, but there is one family that particularly interests him. The Yorkins are a typical American family, with Mom, Dad, and Junior all living out the American dream. Sy envies their life together. So much so, that he begins to imagine inserting himself into their life.

The viewer is lured into Sy's world through a confessional. As the film begins, he is being questioned by police and he begins to tell them about his life in relation to the Yorkins. At first, it seems that he may be a little obsessed with them, perhaps a crush on the beautiful Mrs. Yorkin (Connie Nielsen). Then one begins to question his attention to the boy, Jakob (newcomer Dylan Smith). Ultimately, one begins to see Sy's unspoken desire to replace the husband (Michael Vartan).

The story of One Hour Photo holds few surprises. The plot goes where one expects it to go from the beginning. The reason to see this film is to see Williams' interpretation of a very sick man. Although Williams has played dark roles before, he is starting to show his range as an actor. There is no trace of Robin Williams in Sy Parrish. We completely forget about the man playing him and think only of the strange little man with thinning hair and a blue SavMart vest.

It should almost go without saying that One Hour Photo is not for everyone. There are some disturbing situations, including a scene of forced sex. For the most part, however, the scenes you fear seeing are never shown. In this, the movie is a surprise.

What could have been a very frightening, sickening film comes off as an almost clinical examination of the subject. Like Parrish, we are invited to watch, imagine, but ultimately we can never be part of the picture.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 98 min.

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