One Hour Photo

Life is not easy. A lot of people are depressed, and sometimes it is hard to deal with depression, where some of us choose to no longer live. Robin Williams have been struggling with his depression for a long time, and even if he is no longer with us, he gave us so much joy and laughter over 30 years. He was one of the few comedians who could do so many great characters on screen, and make them his own, with his magical presence. The list of his classics are long, and there are so many motion pictures i could recommend, it would take forever to write them all down. But there is one i have to mention. Awakenings, a wonderful drama, where Robin Williams plays a doctor at a mental hospital, trying to help patients, where Robert De Niro is brilliant as one of his patients. It is one of those motion pictures i have never forgotten, and i never will, because there is a very strong message to be told with the story of Awakenings. After making a lot of comedies, and drama motion pictures, Robin Williams decided to change his genre in 2002, with a very suprising choice. As a disturbed photo shop worker in One Hour Photo, that gave him a best male actor award at the Saturn Awards. As i already mentioned in a previous post in my movie review blog, i choosed this review as one of my favourite motion pictures with Robin Williams. So in memory of Robin, this one is for you.

Seymour "Sy" Parrish ( Robin Williams ) is a photo technician at SavMart's one-hour photo developing clinic. He is very careful, and always make sure customers get the best quality of their camera pictures. Ever since Sy was a young boy, he loved taking pictures on everything. Now as an adult man, he still have a big passion about photography, and loves to see other peoples pictures. He is especially found of pictures taken by the Yorkin family, who are customers at SavMart. Nina Yorkin ( Connie Nielsen ) is always dropping in with the latest camera roll, and Sy is always happy to help her. Nina´s son Jake Yorkin ( Dylan Smith ) usually also visit the store, and Sy loves to see the family together. Sy feel almost like this is his own family, since they visit SavMart so often, and he feels that he knows them more than anyone. He start buying gifts to Jake, even give a birthday camera from the store, without permission. But the biggest problem of all, is that Sy is doing his own copies of the Yorkin family, as he becomes obsessed of being a part of their family. And when he finds out that Nina´s husband Will Yorkin ( Michael Vartan ) is cheating on his wife, Sy can´t take this anymore. He decide to make this family more perfect, with his help.

I could have chosen between a lot of classic motion pictures with Robin Williams, because he did so many great characters, in all genres. So why choose the dark thriller drama One Hour Photo in a time when he is no longer with us ? For the simple reason, this have always been one of my favourite motion pictures with him, ever since the release in 2002. It was the first time we could see him do something very unusual, a very dark story about a man who is deperate, to be a part of his favourite family. Knowing that he was depressed in real life, make this motion picture harder to watch now, but i still feel that this shows what a talented actor Robin Williams was. He decided to do something completely different, and One Hour Photo should have given him an Oscar nomination. Director Mark Romanek have only directed 3 motion pictures, this was his second one. And i have to say, comparing to his other films, that One Hour Photo is his best work so far. One detail he did so well is to let us inside the mind of a disturbed man, to see how he thinks. Not every director can manage to capture that feeling, i belive the last time i saw that was the remake of Maniac, directed by Franck Khalfoun. Looking back at that time of the early 2000, there were many great motion pictures made, but not many original stories that stood out of the ordinary catalogue. One Hour Photo showed the audience that you can make a great thriller drama, on a limited budget, with talented actors. It actually became a small box office success. If you are planning to collect classic dvd´s of Robin Williams, make sure you buy One Hour Photo also. This is one of his greatest performances, he really gave us a character that you will never forget. The psychological perspective is deep, and fascinating, even how disturbed this man really is. You have to see One Hour Photo, this is a film that no one should miss, because Robin Williams really gave us one of his strongest performances here, and he will never be forgotten.

Rating: DDDD