One Hour Photo (2002)

Remember back in August when I said this review will be up soon… Well, here it is… LOL. 

One Hour Photo

Release Date: September 13, 2002

Director: Mark Romanek

Stars: Robin Williams, Connie Nielson, Michael Vartan

Runtime: 96 min

Tagline: The things that we fear the most have already happened to us…

The story follows Sy Parrish, a worker at a local one-hour photo lab who becomes obsessed with a young suburban family. He has watched them grow over the years, and he seriously thinks of himself as “Uncle Sy,” having a wall-sized collage of the family with his head photo pasted on many pictures.

I know I shouldn’t be rooting for a creepy murder in the end, but I was expecting at least a good one. Because of this, the pay-off is not satisfying. The snail-paced flick leads to an ending that’s chilling, but it’s also very strange and hard to understand the stalker’s motivations.
The premise is seriously creepy because it could happen to everyone. If I come away learning one thing from this, I’d say it’s to either use digital cameras or really alternate labs where I bring my photographs.

This is certainly not one of my favourite stalker flicks. It is much better than The Roommate, but I don’t enjoy it quite as one of my favourites, Secret Window.

However, I respect it for not going the traditional route that every stalker film seems to take. It does have the tendency to be unsettling, though.

The direction is solid and Robin Williams is in one of his finest and chilling performances. However, if you only want to see this for a creepy performance from him, just stick to Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia, where he battles wits with Al Pacino.

65/100