One Hour Photo

Post by **Leisher** » Mon May 24, 2004 9:50 pm

Interesting film.

Robin Williams plays a "troubled" (I guess that's the right word) photo clerk who dreams of a life where he's not alone. The focus of his affections is a particular family that drops their film off so often that he's on a first name basis with them.

Robin Williams is just fantastic is this role and in my mind has proven he can act. Its very interesting to note that no matter his motives or actions, you will grow to like his character Sy. A different actor might not have been able to pull that off since Sy is essentially, a bit creepy.

The direction is also very well done. No camera tricks at all, just very good shots that show you what you need to see and actually help to add in the drama that's taking place.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with the film and its in the writing. Sy's actions just don't add up. I've been around enough law enforcement in my life and read enough on real life "troubled" individuals to do some amateur profiling, and Sy just didn't make sense to me. I would be very interested in hearing what a "professional profiler" thought of this film. In fact, if anyone knows of an online article where such a person discusses this film, it'd be appreciated.

Sy's actions weren't the ony problem in the writing though, in fact, there is a MAJOR problem with the plot when Sy makes a huge discovery. Maybe a scene was cut and that caused the problem? I don't know, but I do know that anyone big on storylines like me will have a problem with it.

Outside of those issues, I have to say that the way the film was shot is simply "art". Its a beautiful film, and is paced extremely well.

I believe anyone who likes psychological thrillers will get a kick out of it. The same goes for students of film making and acting.

7 out of 10 stars.

Post by **Vince** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:10 am

Wow. I thought it was pretty poor, myself. Maybe I would have liked it more if I'd waited to rent it.

It seemed to me that there just wasn't enough story to make a full feature film out of this.

I wasn't impressed.

Plus, the whole "gushing blood from the eyes" sequence was really out of place for this film. If it'd been left at a trickle of blood from the corners, that scene would have been much more powerful.

Post by **Leisher** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:00 am

Like I said, most of its stars are based on acting, direction, and set design.

After pondering it some more last night, I realized what bugged me so much about Ty. I promise this isn't a spoiler, but if you know anything about serial killers then you'll realize why Sy's actions bugged me so much. By the end of the film, it all just didn't add up.

As for the blood spurting scene, it was all symbolism. It stood out as an odd moment for me too.

Post by **Vince** » Tue May 25, 2004 12:19 pm

Leisher wrote:After pondering it some more last night, I realized what bugged me so much about Ty. I promise this isn't a spoiler, but if you know anything about serial killers then you'll realize why Sy's actions bugged me so much. By the end of the film, it all just didn't add up.

As for the blood spurting scene, it was all symbolism. It stood out as an odd moment for me too.

Shoot me a PM and tell me what you're talking about with the serial killer.

And I agree the the bleeding eyes was symbolism. And it was good symalism until the blood started gushing (a' la Kill Bill). But once it started gushing, I thought they had completely destroyed a neat little touch.