One Hour Photo

One Hour Photo, a film in limited release that is slowly expanding over the next few weeks, may get more than a few people upset. No, it won’t do for photo processors what Psycho did for showers as a really stupid quote claims in the ads, but it’s certainly going to try some people’s patience. That’s because the film is more concerned with filling out its characters than ratcheting up the tension.

Photo’s main guy is Sy Parrish (Robin Williams), a mild mannered one-hour photo employee who takes an abnormal interest in a young suburban family, the Yorkins. From Sy’s view, Nina (Connie Neilsen) and Will (Michael Vartan) have it all: Money, success, and a son, Jakob (Dylan Smith), who adores them. Or at least that’s what Sy thinks from the photos the Yorkins bring in to have developed. He is desperate to become a part of the family, even going so far as to imagine he is Uncle Sy, spending weekends in the family home. But what if Sy found out things were not as perfect as they seem?

The plot might sound like an extension of the “(blank) from Hell” movie, a thankfully dormant genre from the late 80s and 90s which included Fatal Attraction (the one night stand from Hell), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (the nanny from Hell), Single White Female (the roommate from Hell), and The Temp (the temp from Hell), but the finished product bears little resemblance to any of these films. Photo is more interested in appearances and what we do to keep those held up to other people even as they fall apart around us. Sy’s got a secret on the Yorkins, but they also have one on him. In other words, if you’re looking for boiled rabbit, you need to go elsewhere.

It’s a slow moving film with performances that are subdued and quiet, with a third act that is designed to take you one place, yet it leaves you somewhere else completely. Video director Mark Romanek, who has worked with Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, Björk, and Beck to name a few, has made a film with a huge emphasis on atmosphere and color. The cold whites and blue, which represent Sy, clash constantly with the warmer, earthier tones that represent the Yorkins. Watch the tracking shots of the Sy in his store, and you get a sense that while it is a massive space, it is also simultaneously constricting. But it’s not all style over substance. Romanek also penned the script, and he seems very interested in peeling back the layers of each character until they are all exposed. It’s odd to see Mr. Williams in such a quiet, disconcerting manner without remembering who he is: A well-respected comedian with an acerbic wit and a rapid-fire delivery. He leaves both of these on the sidelines and is quite successful in a tricky role. Ms. Neilsen, best known as Russell Crow’s love in Gladiator, and Mr. Vartan, a star of the show Alias, but better know onscreen as Drew Barrymore’s English Teacher in Never Been Kissed, are good as the all-American family everyone wants to be like until they find out what it takes to be the ideal.

All pulled together, the elements One Hour Photo tare composed of take their time to come to a conclusion, but that conclusion packs quite a punch. Trust me on this one: You won’t see this ending coming.

Submitted 22 September 02. Posted 27 September 02.