One Hour Photo (2002)
Directed by Mark Romanek
Sy Parrish has lovingly developed photographs for the Yorkin family since their son was a baby. But as the Yorkins' lives become fuller, Sy's only seems lonelier, until he eventually convinces himself he's part of their family. When Sy's picture-perfect fantasy collides with an ugly dose of reality, a bizarre and thrilling confrontation ensues.
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What critics compared One Hour Photo to
For a while, Hollywood milked “the friend who becomes the crazed enemy” line: Fatal Attraction , The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Single White Female, and so on, ad nauseum.
After all, we already know some of the ending, and the film also follows the general path of other crazed domestic figures getting into families' lives such as Glenn Close's Alex in "Fatal Attraction" and Rebecca De Mornay's Peyton in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle."
Were his options a multiple choice, he makes the wrong decision and the film never fully recovers as it veers to light “Fatal Attraction” territory.
This is extremely clever, subtle filmmaking that resonates on several levels and provides a fresh, 21st century twist on the Fatal Attraction theme.
It’s the age of pull (from the pocket) and shoot, whenever, wherever – a new act for the term “snapshot” which Robin Williams’ Sy, in Mark Romanek’s bleak, photo-visual satire One Hour Photo (2002) reminds us, was originally a hunting term.
Not since Robin Williams’ performance in One Hour Photo have I seen a protagonist so totally repulsive yet so compellingly fascinating.
Playing the lonely-but-upbeat security guard Paul Blart, James seems to be going for the same sad-sack vibe that John Candy achieved two decades ago in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but he ends up closer to Robin Williams' character in "One Hour Photo."
This is not a “Who’s that guy?” dramatic shift that funnymen often make in more serious films, such as Robin Williams as a bald creep in “One Hour Photo” or Jim Carrey as a cop in “Dark Crimes.”
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After all, we already know some of the ending, and the film also follows the general path of other crazed domestic figures getting into families' lives such as Glenn Close's Alex in "Fatal Attraction" and Rebecca De Mornay's Peyton in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle."
Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), brought in to replace Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) as director less than a month before the start of principal photography, is nothing if not craftsman-like.
Why The Wolfman switched directors from Mark Romanek, the dark visionary behind One Hour Photo , to Joe Johnston, best known for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, remains a mystery deeper than any revealed in the film.
The project bounced from Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) to Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) and several others before landing on the desk of Joe Johnston, a reliable popcorn-maker whom you probably know from fun flicks like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer and Jurassic Park 3. As post-production on The Wolfman wore on, there were reports of reshoots, re-edits, and re-scoring at the last minute.
The astute horror fan might think they can anticipate what comes next; likely something in the vein of Fatal Attraction or One Hour Photo, where a deranged sociopath infiltrates a happy family and slowly tears it apart through manipulation and violence.
While Ishiguro is more circumspect about this — in the novel, narrator Kathy talks around her feelings for Tommy — director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later) commit to a story motivated by a love unrequited and deferred.
Mark Romanek ("One Hour Photo") has directed "Never Let Me Go" with great restraint.
Adapted from the highly regarded novel by Kazuo Ishiguro by director Mark Romanek ("One Hour Photo"), this ambitiously restrained film will most likely please fans of the book's dire speculative vision, even if it leaves others wondering why Ishiguro's gruesome, even sadistic premise merits such tender artistic ministrations.
There is a limitation, however, to Romanek's sense of drama, as was the case with his creepy earlier feature, "One Hour Photo."
Never Let Me Go, with thanks to director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later), is an adult entertainment that exudes sophistication and cleverness.
Romanek, an American who cut his teeth on music videos and One Hour Photo, does a decent job of imitating the austere settings and chilly sophistication of British period melodrama.
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Any hopes that this could be Halloween via Falling Down and One Hour Photo disappear before we're halfway there.
It doesn't help that the film's spectre, a pagan deity known as Bughuul (stuntman Nicholas King), looks more and more like "Saw's" Jigsaw the more we see of him, and he's clearly watched "One Hour Photo" once too often.