I’ve always thought of Robin Williams as a great actor, not just a funny guy. An actor to be respected alongside Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, and many others. I’m just glad that finally a story comes along where he can showcase his talent for the whole world to see. And what a story it is.
Director Mark Romanek, who happens to be making his breakthrough into film with One Hour Photo, has proven himself to me as a director already with his vast collection of incredible music videos. He’s directed everything from Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” and “The Perfect Drug” to just recently directing Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” I don’t think there’s been a music video director as broadly talented as Romanek since David Fincher. Both of them, to me, have similar styles. The music video for “Closer” can only be compared visually to one thing, Se7en (and vice versa). Also, the look of One Hour Photo and Panic Room are similar. However, as similar as they may be, the styles are quite different.
This story, also written by Romaenk, is about obsession. It’s about being alone, and being envious of the love and joy that families have. It’s about a whole big bunch of things, and the simplicity in which these ideas come through in the story, whether with a quick witty piece of narration by our lead character Sy (Williams) or with a very interesting visual, it’s just breathtaking. I found myself smiling at the way the storyline plays, at the way the characters change, and at the way the visuals did such stylish things, and all the while I didn’t know what to expect from the film next. It’s a great feeling to watch a completely original film. Something that still maintains the realism of the everyday world, but can still surprise you with a new take.
Sy, a lonely but generous photo clerk, knows his job and treats it as an art form. He knows his customers, too, and knows how to treat them. The problem is, he knows some of them more than would make them comfortable if they only knew. That’s where his obsession starts, and it’s one particular family that he feels almost a part of. He knows where they live, not just from the lab forms, but because he drives by there and watches the house. He’s watched the young boy grow up, and sometimes goes to see his soccer practices. He also knows that the wife (Connie Neilsen) and husband (Michael Vartan) aren’t getting along so well. This is where the story takes many of it’s turns, and I don’t want to spoil anything for you.
Robin Williams is downright creepy, because he’s the kind of person you talk to all the time, and his job is one of many where people have access to your lives. This film has made it so I’m thinking I’ll never go back to a Photo Processing Lab, I’ll learn to do em myself or something. I myself work in a job where I have access to people’s personal information, and I’m bound to keep it, first of all, private from outside parties, and two, as business and not under any circumstances make it personal. So I can understand how this thing can easily happen, all it takes is a mind that’s just slightly twisted to act on it. Sy is not an evil, deranged crazy litlle weirdo, he’s just someone that’s never had a break, and never had what this family has. The beautiful wife. The great kid. The nice car. The huge house, filled with all this cool stuff, and in the perfect neighborhood. He’s never had the money, or the skills to earn the money. He’s just a regular guy, in a regular apartment, who is, just like many regular men, alone. That doesn’t make him a bad guy, it just gives him the seed for something inside him to grow.
The visual style of this film takes on further expresses the story. The film is set in the washed out environment of a large Wal-Mart type place, with the fake-white neon lights give off too much illumination, and the stores are filled with people like Sy that talk to you like they’re your friend, like they know you. It’s part of their job, right? The shots are well-crafted and edgy, but they don’t take away from the experience or draw attention, they just enhance the feelings of the film. Some of the themes Sy brings up in his voice-overs are so perfect. There’s a line about how the term “Snapshot” was originally used for hunting, and a monologue that discusses the ideas behind why we only take pictures of the things worth remembering in our lives. The acting is superb from all of the cast members, but this is undoubtedly Robin Williams’ show. This is a role you would never expect from him, and it only adds to the character of Sy. It’s a Robin Williams’ movie, so you can trust this guy…
I just spoke to someone the other day, and they told me not to see this because “it was stupid.” Now, after watching it, I want to find this person and them how low on the IQ ladder they’ve got to be to think this was a stupid movie. Because by saying it’s stupid, is just admittance that you just didn’t understand it. And this wasn’t a movie that requires the viewer to do any hardcore thinking. Even if you don’t think about the parallels and philosophical significances of the photography medium and this story and its characters, you can still follow the story from beginning to end and get the point: that sometimes in life there are these really creepy people that you’d never expect to do something bad. It’s not brain surgery, people. It’s just the commitment to watching a good film that doesn’t involve drug deals and bank heists or characters that have strange powers and loads of special effects. This is a movie about how creepy real life is, and how you may want to think about that for a second.
Stupid? Hardly.
Brilliant? Quite.
Entertaining? I was on the edge of my seat, and it had nothing to do with adrenaline or action scenes. It had to do with a one of a kind script, and a one of kind movie, and a one of a kind Robin Williams’s giving the performance of his career. As an actor, I hope this is the film people will remember him by many years to come. They may want to take a picture.
---Garth Simmons.
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