One Hour Photo

A visual stunning movie about visual imagery, One Hour Photo tells the tell of Sy Parrish, who lives only to develop photographs. Sy becomes obsessed with the Yorkins, a young family whose snapshots indicate perfect happiness. When he finds that the reality behind their Kodak moments is not all it’s cracked up to be, Sy himself cracks up a bit, and things spiral into super-creepville. Shockingly, Sy is extremely well played by the normally notoriously annoying Robin Williams. Even more shocking, this beautiful, understated film is directed by a guy whose only previous work was a bunch of Madonna and Nine Inch Nails videos. By placing many of the important thematic elements in the style and color of the visual compositions, director Mark Romanek makes the best possible use of cinema. Though there are a few false notes, and the story isn’t terribly ambitious, this is an extremely compelling first film, and is, so far, one of the year’s best.