Rating: 
Summary: What happend to the ending?
Review: The first three-quarters of this movie are excellent! Robin Williams plays Sy, a pitifully lonely photo developer who just happens to be obsessed with a family who has their pictures processed by him. While we don't know much about his background, we do feel we know Sy, as we follow his miserable existence from his neat, but empty apartment to being hounded by his boss at work. The story becomes truly sinister as we see Sy wants to become part of this family, by any way he can. Up to this point, the movie is great!But will someone please tell me who wrote the last 30 minutes of the film? Surely, some stranger walked in to the screenwriter's office, took the script away from him, and finished it, without reading it. The ending's style didn't match the preceeding part at all. I kept thinking, "Huh?" It completely fell apart and any tension that was built up was lost. Too bad, because it started out so well. Williams is excellent in his portrayal of a psycho, but the script let him and us down at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: "pretend, this is all just pretend..."
Review: _One Hour Photo_ is a well-crafted and stunning thriller. Written and directed by veteran music videographer Mark Romanek, it stars Robin Williams in what surely is one of the greatest performances of his career. Williams plays Sy (Seymour, or "see-more") Parrish, a photo lab employee whose smile and bright work ethic barely shields his obsession with a family who visits the store he works at. Sy's absorption in this seemingly happy family enables him, by living vicariously through them as a fictitious uncle, to offset a crippling personal loneliness. Sy's mysterious malady is only hinted at in the course of the film. Yet whatever its diagnosis-- a by-product of some childhood abuse perhaps, or, as a research psychologist friend of Williams has advised, a high-functioning autism such as Asperger's Syndrome-- it does not figure as largely as what it enables us to see. Williams' turn as the character of Sy is so complete and real that it almost cannot be questioned; I have met several people that the performance here echoes perfectly. Romanek and the controlled accuracy of his script has drawn out of Williams an untapped dark magic and captured it on celluloid for all the world to see. The film is brilliant and uncanny. It has a clarity and strong emotional resonance. In the portrayal of a clash between natural and synthetic worlds-- a clash arguably inherent in the nature of photography-- and the human weakness of a central, doomed character it echoes the stylized visions of Kubrick and Scorsese. Romanek, who said much of the contrast of light and dark imagery in the movie was consciously influenced by Dante's _Divine Comedy_, has made a motion picture as fully-realized and as contemporary as can be. There is no wasted shot, no stray or unnecessary scene. The story, grand yet unpretentious, is utterly believable. The narrative flows steadily, alternately enchanting and riveting the viewer. Samples of dialogue from Sy's television ranging from _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ to _The Simpsons_ highlight Sy's sense of emotional isolation and the fragmentation of his surrogate reality. A dream sequence lasting no more than a minute of screentime nevertheless expresses with frightening purity the character of internal nightmare. _One Hour Photo_ is a film that portrays the dissolution of a dark, troubled soul without unnecessary brooding; if this were a lesser picture, there would be melodrama and screaming. But no scream can pierce the heart more strikingly than the cry of the unloved: _One Hour Photo_ is the tale of a man who just wanted his picture taken. "If photographs have anything to say, it's this: I was here, I existed. I was young and happy and someone cared enough about me to take my picture." In a film in which the snapshot can be a sort of victimization, it is ironic that the lack of one might signal a lack of feeling. If you enjoyed this film track down Romanek's first flick, 1985's _Static_, a similar story of avant-garde descent by a loner into creepy madness.
Rating: 
Summary: "Snapshot... a hunting term" (Hunt this film out!)
Review: One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams was another film I enjoyed over the weekend. I've never seen Williams give such a serious performance. Chilling, really. He plays a 1-hr. photo store clerk who has a particular obsession with one family (the Yorkins) and tries to find ways to integrate himself with them. Mostly he daydreams and watches from afar that is until he discovers the affair Will Yorkin is having behind his wife and son's back with a coworker. This shatters his picture of a perfect family and a happy life. What this epiphany leads him to do is something you'll have to watch the movie for. As a side note. I had to laugh at the blatant product placements used in the film. It's not enough that Sy works at SavMart, but he also has to travel down the aisles and take a rest on a bed with Hello Kitty. And what about the PlayStation game young Jake plays? Or the Sony HDTV in the living room? Or the fact that the husband even knows the brand of his wife's designer blouse? You can tell I really have nothing bad to say, if all I could comment on was product placement. You caught me. This film really is a shining moment for Robin Williams. One great movie! LEAP rating (each out of 5):
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L (Language) - 4 (wonderful performance by robin williams)
E (Erotica) - 3.5 ("put it in your mouth")
A (Action) - 2 (last few minutes starting with Sy checking into the hotel)
P (Plot) - 4 (what does an unhealthy fixation/obsession look like?)
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Masterpiece
Review: Ever since earlier this year when Ebert reviewed this film after Sundance, I knew this was a movie not to miss. My only hope was that it would reach a wide audience, and not vanish like some art films. Robin Williams has never been a favorite of mine, but this year he has inpressed me 3 times, the darker Williams is much better. First in the much hated by many, but not to me, Death To Smoochy, then as a killer in the very good Insomnia, and finally now, in what I feel as William's best performance ever, One Hour Photo. This film gets in your head and stays there. This film is a must see.
Rating: 
Summary: nice shoes
Review: OK, another movie that shows at the local "indepentent" or art theaters...except like so many other so-called independent films -- it's in these theaters, not because it attempts to step outside of film conventions, it's there because it's not very good at all...maybe some psuedo-film fans will gush over Robin Williams playing a misunderstood criminal and begin some sort of grass roots buzz -- it can't play the major market theaters because there no eye candy action or steamy love or beautiful people to gawk at...etc.... what's so disturbing about this picture is not that Williams plays a repressed nice guy psycho, it's that viewers are made to buy the most bland stereo-types in the drama...Dad looks cool, but works too much on his computer and has an affair -- that's it -- I think he has 5 lines -- Mom, though somewhat caring, shops too much and spends all of dad's money and they fight once about that matter...and now to the boy -- we are supposed to like him because he's a boy -- and all boys are nice and play with plastic figures -- they neglect said boy, in a nice way, and Robin comes to the rescue in his deranged sort a way. As for telling the story, they start with the end first -- that must have immediately placed it in the art houses 'cause that's the trendy convention to break these days...see "Momento" for an intellectual & dry version of the broken & reversed narrative Yes, Robin Williams carries this script...he's fine -- but I wonder if I'm just relieved to see him do some new persona or if he's really good...it doesn't matter, 'cause the costume design folks captured so much in his shoes.
Rating: 
Summary: Comedian turned schizo
Review: Seeing a 4 1/2 star rating and having Robin Williams as the star did not prepare me for the role he portrayed in this movie. Instead of the funn/serious kind of person he normally plays, Robin William performs the role of a lonley man who thinks himself the guardian angel of this family.
Living vicariously through their photos, Robin Williams becomes obsessed. The end of the movie was quite a dissapointment because of its ... nature.
This movie is not for those seeking entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: hitchcock has returned to the cinema
Review: ha, thought that might get your attention as you and i both know mr.hitchcock doesn't make films anymore. in fact, i am quite positive in my belief that he would be very disappointed with many a film that has made it to our local cinemas. once you've realized yourself that there are very few effective pyschological thrillers left out there, you may end up hitting the old video store to look for alfred hitchcock films. one hour photo brings back those fond memories of great psychological classics such as psycho or taxi driver given the themes of loneliness, violence, and/ or fatal obsession. here we find multi-talented and unforgettable robin williams playing a seemingly innocent clerk working the one hour photo in a sav-mart department store. there doesn't appear to be anything particularly wrong with this guy in the beginning other than the simple fact he may be a bit too engaged in his line of work or perhaps that he doesn't really have a life outside of work. photo's audience has the pleasure of watching this incredible build-up escalate before their eyes in a matter of 90 some odd minutes. this film was said by many to be frightening enough to make most people think twice about dropping their family pics off at the local one hour photo and i think you too will agree after having seen this nightmarish vision unfold. probability suggests that this may be robin williams's most disturbing, challenging, and yet most effective performance to date. i will be extremely disappointed if he doesn't atleast get an oscar nomination for this daring performance. check this one out tonite and go see with someone you trust.
Rating:
Summary: Let down by my own high expectations
Review: I have to say that I was let down by my own high expectations for this movie. The movie overall just wasn't as "suspenseful" or "freaky" as I had heard. However, Robin Williams's acting is consistently high-quality throughout, and the ending has a very subtly freaky quality to it. I imagine a bit TOO subtle for many viewers. I mean, the freakiness was there, but the ending's impact was almost lost on me as well because it was so underemphasized. A writer friend of mine loved it (saying that it gives us a peek into Robin's character's disturbed psyche), but I thought it could have pulled a bit more focus, you know. "One Hour Photo" is a quality piece of moviemaking definitely worth seeing (just seeing Robin Williams going away from his usual Mrs. Doubtfire/Aladdin's Genie-type fuzzy-feeling comic characters is a delight), but it is hurt by the hype generated by the critics and such. Oh, by the way, the boy totally gets the Evangelion reference wrong. Not that anybody would care about that anyways. :D
Rating:
Summary: Robins is Genius
Review: Robin Williams provided use with a glimpse into his genius. After the movie me and my friends, who liked the movie, talked about how we needed to watch Mrs. Doubtfire to refresh our Williams image. The movie is so realistic. This is why it is creepy. My two friends had a problem with the movies slowness. I loved it no action until my ears bleed and I think of the twenty other movies that used the exact same sequence just a different director and actors. It falls into the cat. of great films. Other movies I compare it two is Silence of the Lambs, or Seven. The director Mark Romanek does a great job is allowing you to contrast two lives lived. His cinematography is very similar to Fincher which works great used appropriately. By far with the amount of horrible movies being released each week at the theater and on DVD this is one movie a lover of film will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: subtle, unsettling glimpse of insanity
Review: Robin Williams gives what may well be the performance of his career in "One Hour Photo," a creepy psychological thriller written and directed with cool precision by Mark Romanek. Given its premise, the film could easily have degenerated into a sordid, exploitative tale of obsession and madness. Instead, Romanek has chosen to take a more subtle approach, fashioning a film that downplays the potential violence of its material while, at the same time, recognizing the humanity of its central figure. Romanek understands that the greatest threats to our safety and lives often come from the gray, nondescript people who surround us unnoticed, the "nobodies" whose benign faces and vacuous smiles reveal no trace of the insanity, evil and potential for doing us harm that may be lurking right there under the surface. And nobody is "grayer" than Si Parrish, an innocuous, socially undeveloped milquetoast who spends his days working as a photo developer in one of those sterile five-and-dime drug stores (just like the one in "The Good Girl") - and his nights sitting all alone in his drab apartment brooding over a massive family-photo shrine he has erected to the Yorkins, a seemingly happy family of three whose pictures Si has been developing, copying and obsessing over for more than seven years now. The film centers around Si's growing fixation with this one family and his delusional belief that he too could somehow become an integral part of their family unit. Then comes the day when Si realizes that he is no longer content to be a mere vicarious member of this adopted family and, thus, begins his plan to gradually insinuate himself more and more directly into their lives. As both writer and director, Romanek manages to keep us in a state of vague uneasiness throughout. We are always anticipating some potentially dreadful event, yet Romanek doesn't go for the easy thrill or the obvious plot turn. Thanks to Williams' subtle, incisive performance, we come to understand something of what makes this strange character tick. We begin to sense the deep-seated loneliness and social awkwardness that have come to play such an important part in defining both his behavior and his character. Si is scary, but he is also pathetic. He may have slipped over the edge into madness, but it is a pathology rooted in overwhelming loneliness and the inability to "fit in" to the societal "norm" of marriage and family. Even when his character is at his most threatening and irrational, Williams somehow makes us care about him. Romanek hits upon a few ancillary themes as well. He acknowledges how photos create the appearance of a life without necessarily reflecting the reality of that life. Most people, Si confesses, record only the "special, happy" moments of their lives - birthdays, weddings, holidays etc. and leave out the mundane or painful ones. Moreover, Si tells us that people use pictures as a way of defeating aging and time, of saying to the world of the future that "I", this seemingly insignificant person, was really here, being happy and enjoying life. To match this theme, Romanek's visual style often feels like the director's own personal homage to The Photograph, as the camera scans caressingly across a sea of snapshots - and Si's voiceover narration complements that feeling. "One Hour Photo" is not a film for those who like their chills heavily laced with bloodshed, murder and mayhem. It is, rather, for those who can appreciate a quietly unsettling, yet strangely compassionate glimpse into the dark recesses of the troubled mind.
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