One Hour Photo

a little bit empty

06 December 2008

Robin Williams is undeniably creepy as the lonely retail assistant at the one-hour photo booth who takes an unhealthy interest in the photos of one particular family. His understated performance really does carry the film but unfortunately his good work is undone by the overly self-conscious directing of Mark Romanek (whose background in music videos shows). Everything is far too stylised, and for a film that desperately wants to make some kind of comment on modern American life, there really is very little about this film that seems in any way recognisably realistic. And really, how many photos does one family need to take? Still, it is reasonably unsettling. The main problem is the ending, which tries to force some kind of moral context upon the protagonist's actions. You have to wonder, how much more disturbing would it have been had they gone unexplained?

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