Movie Extravaganza- "One Hour Photo"

"One Hour Photo" is the third installment in my Movie Extravaganza. Here are my thoughts!

One Hour Photo (2002) directed by Mark Romanek stars Robin Williams as "Sy", a photo-tech at a one hour photo lab who becomes obsessed with a young suburban family. He has developed their photographs for over 10 years. He enters their lives through the images in their family photographs and becomes obsessed with the false image that is is portrayed in their photographs. When this ideal image is shattered through the discovery of an affair through the "other woman's" photographs, he is driven to punish the unfaithful lovers.

This is a very engaging, creepy film that analyzes the role photography plays in our lives and society. The film starts with a wonderful monologue about why the general public takes photos. The capturing of happy, good memories which we want to keep, cherish and rescue from fading memory or distructive fires. They are a record of our existence at a particular time on this planet. They prove we were young and vibrant and loved. We pose, preserve and project the ideal family or situation. It is this world that Sy longs to be part of.

As a photographer this film is interesting to see behind the scenes of a working one-hour lab as well as reveiling the trust that is somewhat unknowingly given to the photographer and lab tech. The premise of the movie is unsettling and disturbing. Director Mark Romanek matches and enhances the disturbing premise of the movie with the choices he makes in the style and use of his cinematography. Every choice in this movie lends to the creepy feeling. From Sy's wardrobe, clinical appartment, the bluish florescent lights of the Department store and the long, low shots of the store shelves. There is a surreal, clinical feeling throughout the movie which must be created through lighting choices that I am not sure exactly how it was created.
I loved some of the camera viewpoints chosen by the director. One example is when Sy is sitting in his car outside of the family home and the camera frames him from above through the windsheild with the rearview mirror blocking out/covering just his eyes. I thought this was very effective. I also really liked how the director used the wall of photographs to reveal to the audience that Sy had been stalking this family for years. Without having to say a word in the script he just let the photo's speak for themselves. This was clever and more effective than if it had been stated in more traditional ways.
He used this method a couple of more times through the film. After Sy was fired and he wanted his revenge on his boss, he let photography do the work for him. He took the series of photographs of the boss's daughter and let him discover it at the lab. He didn't have to say a word to communicate his displeasure. Also at the end of the movie, when Sy asks the officer to see his photographs, the audience is thinking that the images maybe of the punished lovers but instead are of simple items found in a hotel room. By showing these photographs and having Sy take such care in his placement of them on the table, we realize that Sy has a great love for photography and would not lower it by taking such pornographic images. He wanted to make the lovers suffer with shame the way he had as a child but not actually create or record such images on film. Plus he is just CRAZZZZZZZY!!!!!
I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes well acted, disturbing, visually interesting films.