One Hour Photo

Last night, I watched the movie "One Hour Photo" on Channel Four. I have wanted to watch this film for quite a while, as I am a fan of Mark Romanek's work with music videos (most notably with Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers and also the infamous apple iTunes and iPod commercials) . Romanek wrote and directed One Hour Photo, so I was expecting to really enjoy the film, which I did.

I thought that Robin Williams gave a brilliant performance portraying the disturbed photo lab assistant. Combined with Romanek's direction, you could not help but feel for the main character, Sy, whilst at the same time cringing with disgust at the things he was doing.

I really liked the clinical feel of the supermarket achieved with blue lighting and a super-modern, super-minimal set (almost reminiscent of the Scream video that he directed years ago). This setting created a strange aura around Sy, adding to the suspense of his obsession with the family that brings their photo's to him.

There is always a risk of creating a character that is so strange that the audience don't connect or recognise with him. I feel that Romanek avoided this, for this reason, the character of Sy reminded me of Robert De Nero in Taxi Driver. He wasn't a monster, he was human. I felt that the conversations that Sy had with the kid in the film helped to achieve this. You are unsure of whether he is a threat, but somehow you know that he would never hurt the child.

The only thing that I wasn't happy with was the ambiguous ending with Sy in a photograph with the family. To me, this was in his imagination, however some may interpret this differently thinking that the family thanked him for saving them and pointing out their problems. Didn't like that. Also didn't like the fact that we never know what happens to Sy. Does he go to jail? Does he continue to stalk this family? Does he now realise that there is no such thing as the perfect family and has seen the error of his ways?

All in all this was the film that I expected it to be, but for me the ending let it down a little (not enough to put me off recommending it though!|)