Vision blurs, images create alternative view
One Hour Photo is arguably the best independent film of the year.
Disconcerting but captivating from the cinematography to the dialogue, Robin Williams undertakes a challenging lead role.
He’s known as “Sye the photo guy” who develops pictures in the local SavSmart photo lab.
Williams’ character is rather deranged, isolated and hopeless, a role he plays effortlessly. Sye’s life is depicted as meaningless to the average person, but he is passionate about the world of film development. He becomes unhealthily consumed with a woman and her child.
The film alters the traditional perspective of taking pictures. The director focuses on the details of vision. The central theme is a constant reminder that oneÃs eye captures millions of images throughout a lifetime.
These images produce feelings of sadness, happiness, nostalgia but in Sye’s case the images captured on photos have created an inner bitterness and resentment for a particular member of a regular’s family.
The simplicity of Williams’ character along with the filmÃs simple imagery keeps the audience in a trance ? only taking notice of the wonderful moments captured by pictures. No one takes snap shots of the ordinary things like a “mosquito on your Jell-O.”
Sye becomes secretly obsessed with the Yorkin family. He regularly develops their film and vicariously attaches himself to their glossy, flawless world of birthday parties and family vacations.
After building a personal collection of the Yorkins’ photographs over the years, he realizes, “everyone always takes pictures of the happy times” in their lives ó never moments of grief or tribulation. A simple idea, merely overlooked in everyday life.
Sye soon damages the trivial paradise of the Yorkins by helping to reveal a horrific truth.
The tension mounts and his quiet demeanor mutates into a violent pursuit for recognition and a desire to become “uncle Sye” and the unsung hero.One Hour Photo will leave you thinking twice about regularly developing film at one store. The person behind the counter might know a little more about your life than you think.And thanks to director, Mark Romanek, who makes the ending parallel to life, things arenÃt always resolved.
