No one expects One Hour Photo, with its arthouse content and subversive intentions, to become a $100-million summer blockbuster, but it is singular, original and refreshing, even with its gloomy mood.
One Hour Photo (2002)
Tomatometer
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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
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Reviews for One Hour Photo
All in all, One Hour Photo is an outstanding showcase for both the veteran star and the rookie filmmaker.
I'm glad Williams is taking chances. I wish Romanek had shown an adventurous spirit to match.
Unfortunately, One Hour Photo lives down to its title. Thanks largely to Williams, all the interesting developments are processed in 60 minutes -- the rest is just an overexposed waste of film.
Frightening realism is always scarier than gore, and Williams is frighteningly realistic.
One of the best examples of how to treat a subject, you’re not fully aware is being examined, much like a photo of yourself you didn’t know was being taken.
Using only a few colors, Williams paints a deep portrait of a disturbed man whose lines of reality are becoming blurred.
Robin Williams fans have seen all the faces and heard all the voices before, but rarely have so many skills combined to forge one creepy, unforgettable character with such uncharacteristic subtlety.
A piece of often masterly image-making, a half-brilliant film with a revelatory lead performance by Williams. But it's also a thriller that gets trapped in surfaces: shiny, exciting, full of dread but often only tricks of the camera.
Playing beautifully both to fans and haters, Williams' Sy is a character you don't know whether to hug or go vigilante on his ***
One Hour Photo wins the prize for being the summer's creepiest film, as well as one of its more intriguing.
An intense and effective film about loneliness and the chilly anonymity of the environments where so many of us spend so much of our time.
One Hour Photo takes Robin Williams to darker and more complex places that we can't turn our eyes away from.
The gradual build-up to the final moments of this smart and deeply unsettling psychological thriller from ace music video director Mark Romanek is so good that the actual climax comes as something of a disappointment.
One Hour Photo is an intriguing snapshot of one man and his delusions; it's just too bad it doesn't have more flashes of insight.
Mark Romanek's creepy, oddly humane debut thriller is not your usual Williams day at the beach: Leave the automatic laugh track at home.
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...
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