“One Hour Photo” (Fox Searchlight)
Robin Williams won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Good Will Hunting” in 1997. After that he stuck with “feel good” roles such as “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Patch Adams.”
Recently he has tried to impress us with his dramatic acting skills once more by going towards the dark side. This change started with the well-acted but poorly received “Death To Smoochy,” followed by the killer role in “Insomnia.” Now comes his best role yet in “One Hour Photo.”
In this movie he plays Sy, the photo guy at Sav-Mart. Sy is a lonely man who becomes obsessed with a family who bring him their photos to develop. The family is composed of Will, Nina and Jake their son. Michael Vartan plays Will, Connie Neilsen is Nina and Dylan Smith is Jake.
The movie starts with Sy being interrogated by a police detective played by Eriq LaSalle, so you know something bad has happened. Then the movie flashes back to show what built up to the “event” that required police action. Seeing Sy become more and more deranged in his dealings with the family makes for one of the creepiest movies ever.
I have never seen a movie that is so frightening without showing any gruesome or graphic scenes. It is a credit to the maker of the movie that the suspense builds so steadily and the fear factor is so intense.
All of the actors are good in the movie but Williams is amazing. He has harnessed all of his frenetic energy and internalized it. Sy is played as a man on the verge of erupting into violence. He seethes with indignation and anger which is directed against his boss at Sav-Mart and eventually against one of the members of the family he adores.
The movie is rated R for profanity, violence and nudity.
“One Hour Photo” is not an easy movie to watch. The intensity will almost overwhelm you. But it is a spellbinding film which features an Oscar worthy performance by Williams. After seeing this movie you will never look at his silly putty face in the same way.
I scored “One Hour Photo” a fully developed 8 out of 10.
©2003 Jackie K. Cooper
