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    One Hour Photo

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "One Hour Photo" is a creepy, very effective thriller with great cinematography and top-notch performances. Seymour "Sy" Parrish (Robin Williams) is a photo technician who works at a one-hour photo developing clinic in a big Wal-Mart-like store. He doesn't just love his job, he's obsessed with it. He looks forward to seeing people bring in their photos because it makes him feel like he is a part of all of these people's lives. In particular, he has been attached to a family who have been coming to his work for years: husband Will (Michael Vartan), wife Nina (Connie Nielsen) and their son Jake (Dylan Smith) One day, a customer (Erin Daniels) drops off a batch of photos and upon seeing the snapshots; Sy's entire world comes crumbling down.

    Robin Williams really shows off his acting talent playing Sy, a character that you would want to stay as far away from as possible in any other movie, but is fascinating to follow here. There's the right mixture of creepiness and mystery with just a touch of sadness that makes you want to see where this guy is going and also care about him. You will feel all kinds of mixed emotions with this film. Do you cheer for the guy, even though he's essentially a creepy stalker? I suppose technically he isn't hurting anyone when he lovingly looks at the pictures of the Yorkin family…

    The fact that you do care about Sy is only half of what makes the movie tense. The other characters, particularly the ones playing the Yorkin family do a good job too and you're often stuck between routing for them to figure out what is going on and call the police, routing for Sy to find some kind of peace and move on or just praying that neither one screws up and ends up destroying the other.

    Visually, the movie looks great. Several scenes have excellent and subtle art direction (Sy's apartment for example) while other scenes are clearly meant to evoke photography equipment, making it apparent that photography is pretty much all that Sy has in his life. I want to say that the villains are wonderfully complex and realistic, but I don't know if villain is the correct term. There are some people you won't like here, you might even be frightened by Sy, but you also understand who they are and your heart goes out to them. They're realistic people and that's a refresher in a thriller.

    While the ending is disturbing and a few revelations might feel like it comes out of nowhere, there are actually a lot of clues along the way that hint towards them. It's a movie with a lot of layers that will reward you for seeing it multiple times."One Hour Photo" is bound to impress you visually, surprise you with its great performances and give you some genuine thrills but it will also give you a lot to think about. I say watch it once, and then watch it a second time with a friend who hasn't seen it before to really get some meaty conversations going. (On DVD, January 18, 2013)

    10
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    adamwatchesmovies@  18.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,866 reviews

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