One Hour Photo

December 10, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 98 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

One Hour Photo could serve as an infommercial for why you should buy a digital camera. Unfortunately, what it really made us want to buy is some really strong coffee to help us stay awake.

One Hour Photo

Did you ever wonder if the place where you get your film developed looks at your photos? In this movie, Robin Williams plays Sy Parrish, who runs the one hour photo lab at the local Sav-Mart. And suffice to say Sy definitely takes a look at your pictures. In fact, he might be living vicariously through you without you even knowing it.

Photo processing is Sy’s life. He doesn’t have anything or anyone else. He is nice to his customers almost to the point of being obnoxious. He appears harmless and is the type of guy you’re more likely to pity than fear. But as we learn in this story, he has issues. That’s about all we can say without spoiling the story.

This is one of those movies where we’re going to find ourselves on the opposite end of the spectrum from most reviewers. Artistically, this movie is superb. The cinematography and sets are outstanding. Robin Williams gives a completely believable performance and seems to be doing so effortlessly. However, we rate movies based on the entertainment factor. Usually this has us liking movies that critics hate because we had enjoyed bare breasts and explosions. But in this case it is the opposite, we can appreciate the art of this film very much, but it was so slow that we were almost nodding off.

We’re glad to see Robin Williams playing some different characters in his more recent movies such as Insomnia. We had hoped he would really go over the top in this movie like Kevin Spacey in Seven or Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal. But alas, we end up with a kinder gentler nut case. And as such this movie doesn’t even belong in the same class as Hannibal or Seven. Although Williams may manage to creep out some of his core audience with this performance, One Hour Photo is really a thriller with training wheels. If you must see this movie, save it for DVD.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 2 Stars, Andrew A Rolfes, Connie Nielsen, Dylan Smith, Michael Vartan, R, Robin Williams, Theatrical, Thriller