Movie Review-One Hour Photo

Robin Williams takes obsessed to a whole new level

A tik tok came across my FYP about how overlooked Robin Williams' fashion sense was. From Issey Miyake to his most notable Jean Paul Gautier body shirt, I personally never realized how influential he was in both fashion and acting. With this in my scope of vision I thought to myself “when was the last time I saw a Robin Williams movie?” We’ve all see Mrs. Doubtfire but he was such a multidimensional actor, I looked for a movie that really showed a different side of him. I found “one hour photo” and he did not disappoint. 

In this movie we get introduced to Sy, a photo technician who works at savmart, a department store located in a small quiet town. Sy absolutely loves his job and goes above and beyond when printing pictures for his customers. His attention to the resolution, frame, and saturation of each frame shows how dedicated he is to this job. With this dedication, each customer that comes into the store has a personal connection to him since he’s been working at savmart for the past 11 years. 

We then get introduced to Nina Yorkin and her son Jacob. They come to see sy, affectionately nicknamed “sy the photo guy” to have a few photos developed from a birthday party. They have a brief exchange before sy asks how many copies of the pictures she wanted. Nina say’s 2 and sy writes 3 down on the form (that's suspicious). 

Next we see this very intimate process of developing these family photos and when they are finished, sy takes a moment to marvel at his work. He admired his work so much that when we see him go home after work, he has an entire wall of Nina’s film through the years. I’m talking about vacations, pregnancy, birthdays and holidays. 

When I saw the wall of photos I really gasped. Every intimate moment this family shared was on display in someone else’s home. It was obsessed and creepy. Throughout the film Sy is presented as this character who has no sense of belonging. No family, significant other or close relationships outside the ones made from work. So with all of this information, when Sy is fired from savmart after being audited, he is devastated.

This devastation turns into a psychotic break as he stalks the Yorkin family only to discover the husband, Will Yorkin, is having an affair! This leads me to believe that Sy was more obsessed with the idea of a perfect nuclear family and when Will decided to betray his family Sy is heard saying “he doesn’t deserve a family like that.”

This movie felt so familiar because it mirrored many of the aesthetics seen in 40 year old virgin. The clean cut nice guy aesthetic was similar until a major event shifted their lives. 

I would recommend watching this film, it’s rated R but aside from a few jump scares it is not a horror film. 

Which Robin Williams film should I watch next?