Flashback Review: One Hour Photo
The Movie:
Seymour “Sy” Parrish (Robin Williams) has been a photo tech at a local store for the last 11 years. He knows everyone and has developed photos for many families over the years but he’s grown quite fond of the Yorkin family. Wife and mother Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) in particular. His admiration quickly turns to obsession and drives him down a dark path that he can’t come back from.
I’ve been a huge fan of Mark Romanek‘s work in music videos for a while now so when I saw this film back in 2003 I was completely in love with it. Romanek has a certain style to his projects and even though it isn’t overly stylized it was very apparent in the simple things like the way film was being processed. The subject matter of the film was that of something that isn’t impossible to happen and that’s what made it feel so personal and creepy. At the same time you feel sorry for Sy because deep down he’s just a man looking for a family bond but going about it the completely wrong way. It really shows just how far a deranged person will go to feel Williams who is known for his comedic acting took a surprisingly dark turn in the film and it worked so well for him. For someone to go from comedy to something so dark you have to go for it and he did. You can see it in his eyes that he committed 100% of himself to the role. The film looks great on blu-ray but I did notice that in certain spots some of the scenes shake. Something must’ve happened during the process of the transfer. Other than that everything else looks and sounds fantastic. If you’re a lover of character pieces and thrillers then this is so perfect and you can’t pass this up.
Special Features:
Location/Tech Scouting: Multi Angle Vignettes – Romanek and crew looks at various locations for the film and create mock scenes.
Cast Rehearsals – It’s interesting to see the different ways they played around with scenes in these rehearsals. Really great feature.
Lensing One Hour Photo -A great behind the scenes look at the film and Romanek’s vision.
Cinemax Featurette – A quick look at the film along with the cast and crew interviews.
Main Title Test – Different versions of the title sequence of the film.
Sy’s Nightmare Elements – A very quick feature on the nightmare sequence that Sy has and how they layered the tear effect.
The Charlie Rose Show -A sit down chat with Romanek and Williams and how the idea of the film came to be.
Sundance: Anatomy Of A Scene – A feature from the Sundance Channel that dissects certain scenes and really shows the film making process.
