Robin Williams continues to hone his talent for playing understated creeps in the Mark Romanek release \One Hour Photo."" The film portrays Williams as a simple photo technician who lives his life through the picturesque memories of a local family. He continues in the suspense genre here, following up his performance in ""Insomnia"" as yet another quiet yet alarmingly deranged individual. Family values come to the forefront time and time again throughout the unruffled beginning, showing how gilded the lifestyles of private citizens can really be.
Sy Parrish (Williams) is an unassuming clerk at the local Sav-Mart, a model employee who loves his customers'and their photos'as if they were his own family. A simple man who is taken for granted, we quickly find out that the surface doesn't reveal much about Sy. The film is narrated by the intermittent thoughts of Parrish, letting the viewer in on what actually goes through the head of the ""photo guy.""
The narration itself is startlingly calm, as Williams observes the often false impression that photos can give, saying people only take pictures of what they want to remember. Granted, this may seem trite, but what lies beneath it is the negative message that nothing is truly picture perfect. Clearly unhappy with his own existence, Sy lives in the memories of those in his community. Blindly unaware that the people surrounding him are in no better position in life than he'he is deceived by his own idealistic mind. Sy is intrigued, and eventually obsessed, with an attractive family that he develops pictures for. He takes comfort in dreaming that he is cared for, that he is a loved member in the Yorkin family photo album, ""Uncle Sy."" Searching for what he evidently never had, Sy takes comfort in their photos, photos that show a family full of love and unity. Yet once he starts to discover that this family has its own issues of dishonesty and infidelity, his fantasy world begins to fall apart.
The difference between what is seen and the reality of relationships is closely examined throughout ""One Hour Photo."" The Yorkin family, whom Sy Parrish obsesses over and wishes to be a part of, has the same relational problems that thousands of families deal with in America. Director/writer Mark Romanek, who makes his feature film debut following a career of music video directing, examines what is perfect in the eyes of Sy Parrish, only to show him what he already knew: Photos can show a disheartened man smiling, or a neglected child laughing. Romanek effectively opens Sy up to the reality of his fantasy, which leads to the suspenseful fall of ""the photo guy's"" world.
Williams turns in an impressive performance in this dark movie, exhibiting his ability to turn a quiet, seemingly unassuming character into a threatening madman. As the movie builds and his character falls toward lunacy, Williams maintains control of Sy Parrish's dementia, innocently telling the audience, ""I just took pictures."" ""One Hour Photo"" won't scare the pants off the viewer, but it very well might make Polaroid film seem comforting.
