Saturday, September 21, 2002

Quickie Review: One Hour Photo

Stanley and I finally got a chance to see One Hour Photo. It was excellent. I read a few of the reviews afterwards - most of the reviewers missed the point of the movie, complaining that the "other" characters were "cardboard" or not as fully developed onehour_8.jpgas Robin William's Seymour Parrish (Sy - the one hour photo guy). The movie wasn't about the other characters, the family that obesessed Sy (if had been about them, the director would have probably used more well-known actors than the relatively obscure ones who played the family). The movie was about Sy. The story was told visually more than any other movie I've seen in quite a while - with the cinematography and sets and costumes. You could probably understand the movie and what was going on without any dialogue - the dialogue enhanced the movie, but wasn't essential to it. Williams played this character exquisitely well. It was a really creepy movie, about lonliness and desperation and how sterile life can be when it's not shared with people who care about you. Listen carefully to Sy's observations as he tells the detective why he did what he did. Eriq La Salle was quietly and solidly good as the detective and Gary Cole was as good as the store manager as he was as the department manager in Office Space (essentially the same role - but Cole does it well.) Definitely worth paying full price to see it (with expensive popcorn to boot).

It also gave me some design ideas for a couple of new websites we're building.
posted by lee on 09/21/02 at 04:15 AM

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