One Hour Photo

A Film Review of "One Hour Photo"

Copyright 2002 Glenn Walker

Robin Williams is not a favorite. But here, in his second sociopathic role (the first being Insomnia from earlier this year), his understated subtle performance may win him another Oscar nomination. Usually Williams strikes me as waaay over the top in an annoying Jim Carrey (like in "Jack" or "The Survivors") but that probably is due to suffering through his stand up act or early "Mork and Mindy" brainwashing. Otherwise he is this annoying sympathetic character just this side of Tom Hanks (a la "Bicentennial Man" or "Dead Poet Society").



In "One Hour Photo" Williams is Sy Parrish, a middle-aged photo developer at K-Mart wannabe Sav-Mart who becomes waaay too attached to a family whose pictures he's done for over a decade. As obsession turns to stalkingthe line between reality and fantasy blurs and Sy becomes downright dangerous. Robin Williams is pricelessly creepy and deeply disturbing, almost as if he were channeling Anthony Perkins or Anthony Hopkins.

No one in the audience can help but squirm as Sy visits the family's nine year old son at a soccer practice and just gets too close. You want to yell for the boy to run. It's positively chilling. Must see.