Review of One Hour Photo (2002) by Adam F — 23 Jan 2013

"One Hour Photo" is a creepy, very effective thriller with great cinematography and top-notch performances. Robin Williams really shows off his acting talent playing "Sy", a character that in no other movie you would want to follow, but in this film there's the right mixture of creepiness, mystery and just a touch of sadness that makes you want to see where this guy is going and also care about him.

The fact that you do care about "Sy" is only half of what makes the movie tense however, the other characters, particularly the ones playing the "Yorkin" family do a good job too and you're often stuck between routing for them, routing for "Sy" or just praying that neither one screws up and ends up destroying the other.

Visually, the movie looks great. Several scenes have excellent and subtle art direction ("Sy's" apartment for example) while other scenes are clearly meant to evoke photography equipment, making it apparent that photography is pretty much all that "Sy" has in his life.

There aren't any clear villains in the film, only realistic people and that's a refresher and while the ending is disturbing and might feel like it comes out of nowhere, there are actually a lot of clues along the way that hint towards it and if you don't pick them up, try watching the movie a second time to get the full effect.

"One Hour Photo" is bound to impress you visually, surprise you with its great performances and give you some genuine thrills but it will also give you a lot to think about and, if you watch it with a friend a lot to talk about and discuss.

(Dvd, January 18, 2013).