Click to read the article
One Hour Photo (2002)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:190
Fresh:155
Rotten:35
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Robin Williams is every effective in this creepy thriller.
Theatrical Release:Aug 21, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $31,469,714
Synopsis: Viewed through our photographs, it would seem we have lived a joyous, leisurely existence. Sy Parrish (Robin Williams), who makes this observation, adversely leads a lonely life, operating a photo... Viewed through our photographs, it would seem we have lived a joyous, leisurely existence. Sy Parrish (Robin Williams), who makes this observation, adversely leads a lonely life, operating a photo lab in a SavMart department store. He escapes his dreary reality through the family photos of Nancy Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) and her family. His admiration of the Yorkins becomes an obsession, as he fashions himself as Uncle Sy to little Jake (Dylan Smith). Sy's judgment becomes impaired by his unhealthy interest, causing him to lose his job of 11 years. As his final day approaches, Sy develops photographs revealing an indiscretion on the part of Mr. Yorkin (Michael Vartan). The unstable Sy now develops a disturbing, calculated plan to instill family values to the Yorkin clan. Much of ONE HOUR PHOTO takes place inside a department store similar to a Wal-Mart, bordered in an icy blue. This cold atmosphere creates a solitary framework for the disturbed photo developer Sy Parrish, played with a melancholic detachment by Williams, working here against type. Director Mark Romanek (STATIC) has created a thriller with little violence. Instead, it is permeated with an uncomfortable fear emanating from its damaged protagonist. [More]
Starring: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole
Starring: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, Eriq La Salle, Dylan Smith, Nick Searcy
Director: Mark Romanek
Director: Mark Romanek
Screenwriter: Mark Romanek
Producer: Christine Vachon, Stanley J. Wlodkowski, Pamela Koffler
Composer: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Get This Movie
Reviews for One Hour Photo
Call it an exercise in threat management, free with the purchase of a photo album--or a movie ticket.
This is a brilliant, incredibly directed film with excellent performances all around from Nielsen, and Williams who deserves an Oscar nod.
This immaculately made first feature from noted musicvid and commercials director Mark Romanek provides Robin Williams with one of his creepiest, atypical roles, and the comic star responds with an unusually restrained performance...
In a story so reliant on detail as the engine for character action, it’s frustrating and annoying to see the film spiral down the gurgler because of a few (but crucial) lapses of attention to detail.
Robin Williams creates a character who earns our revulsion--and somehow also our sympathy.
Sy is a complete character with a physicality, inner monologue and motivation that we haven't seen from Mr. Williams in a long time. And it's a pleasure to watch.
Robin Williams' good work in contained in an uneven film, whose first half is an intriguing chronicle of urban alienation, but second part deteriorates into a presposterous thriller with a subplot of stalking and revenge--not unlike Fatal Attraction
It has arresting things to say about how the family photo is used less to record than to project, and how far that projection can be from the truth.
This story begs for a harder focus, the kind of thing Stanley Kubrick was always good at, at least until he got a little too focused. What saves the film is Robin Williams in a very atypical role.
What brings the film to a level beyond is Williams's superb performance and, in turn, Romanek's carefully calibrated direction.
A music video is like espresso: a lot of visual power compressed into five minutes. A movie needs to know something of the rhythms of everyday life, or else the audience get dizzy and exhausted.
This isn't the Williams of Mrs. Doubtfire or, thank heavens, Jack or What Dreams May Come.
Robin Williams has mastered the essence of the overlooked man. Quite simply, it is a fantastic move for his career.
It's the mark of a good thriller when we never know quite when to relax. This movie has several witty and visually adept sequences which caught me completely off guard, and has me still thinking about them.
Mark Romanek's film is both intriguing and unsettling, inviting the viewer to become a voyeur, like Sy, inspecting the minutae of the lives of others.
Latest News for One Hour Photo
December 03, 2008:
Mark Romanek to Direct Alex Garland's Never Let Me Go ![]()
Prolific commercial and music video director Mark Romanek, who most recently directed One Hour Photo in 2002, will helm Alex Garland's Never Let Me Go, the film adaptation of... More...
February 09, 2007:
Mark Romanek to Direct New "Wolf Man"
We mentioned this story a while back, I believe, but now we have some solid progress, so here we go again: Universal is hot to remake "The Wolf Man," which would... More...
October 05, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Departed" Is Best Reviewed Wide Release of 2006
This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon), chainsaw massacres in Texas... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 40% 40% | Surrogates |
| 83% 83% | Whip It |
| 29% 29% | Gamer |
| 97% 97% | The Hurt Locker |
| 81% 81% | Michael Jackson's This… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 87% 87% | A Serious Man |
| 37% 37% | The Time Traveler's Wife |
| 78% 78% | Bronson |
| 11% 11% | The Stepfather |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- One Hour Photo at Rotten Tomatoes
- One Hour Photo at IGN
- One Hour Photo at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

Check out PopEater's collection of childhood photos of celebs, from Tom Cruise to Kim Kardashian.

TIME's Richard Corliss pores over the Oscar noms for the major awards and offers his take on who will win.

For a different take, the AV Club delves into why awards season is terrible.

Moviefone has put together a list of the actors with the most Razzie noms ever.

Hollywood.com makes a case for a big screen adaptation of popular game Mass Effect.
Promos

Download it from iTunes and get Tomatometer scores straight to your iPhone!



Top Critic
