One Hour Photo
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Template:Infobox Film One Hour Photo (2002) is an American psychological thriller written and directed by Mark Romanek and starring Robin Williams. Fox Searchlight Pictures distributed the movie in the United States. The movie also starred Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, and Eriq La Salle. Williams won a Saturn Award for Best Actor (2003) for his work in the film.
Many critics say this movie is "doing for photos what Psycho did for showers."
Several elements from the film are borrowed from The Conversation, a 1974 film by Francis Ford Coppola.
Contents |
Plot
- Tagline: There's nothing more dangerous than a familiar face.
Sy Parrish, a photo tech at "SavMart", leads a depressing life alone. Daily, he labors to ensure the most perfect photos possible for his customers; his life is truly his work, for he has no one and nothing to go home to at the end of the day. Among his customers is the Yorkin family, which includes husband William (Vartan), wife Nina (Nielsen), and their only child Jake (Dylan Smith). Sy has done their photos for years, and over time has developed an obsession with the family. He admires their happiness and wealth, memorizes every personal detail about them that he can learn, and finally begins to spy on and stalk them. Most of all, he fantasizes of being a member of their family, and of sharing in the love he assumes they must feel. He is painfully shy, however, and his attempts to become part of their family are gently rebuffed.
Sy discovers that William is having an affair, and his rosy conception of the Yorkins as the "perfect" loving family is shattered. He comes to hate and envy William, who has everything Sy longs for but doesn't seem to care. Sy soon finds himself in a world of trouble; in trouble with his store manager Bill Owens (Cole) for an outburst in the store and later, after a violent confrontation with William and his mistress (Daniels) at their hotel, with two police detectives (La Salle, Clark Gregg) who believe he is stalking the family.
At the end of the film there are some hints that Sy's madness may have been the result of a childhood dominated by sexual abuse thus explaining his obsession with "The perfect family". This view is supported by writer/director Romanek in interviews and commentaries which he has made; the character of Sy was apparently forced to pose for child pornography by his pedophile father. He has become unable to relate to life except through photographs, and it is this dehumanizing influence and his emotional retardation that have led to his lonely life.
The film ends with an ambiguous image that could be interpreted to imply that Sy eventually is accepted and loved by the Yorkins, or to imply rather that he slides back into his obsession and continues to live in a dream world.
Trivia
Trent Reznor of the band Nine Inch Nails composed the original film score but Mark Romanek opted not to use it. The music can still be heard on the Nine Inch Nails EP Still.
Major cast
- Robin Williams - Seymour "Sy" Parrish
- Connie Nielsen - Nina Yorkin
- Michael Vartan - Will Yorkin
- Dylan Smith - Jake Yorkin
- Gary Cole - Bill Owens
- Eriq La Salle - Detective James Van Der Zee
- Clark Gregg - Detective Paul Outerbridge
- Erin Daniels - Maya Burson