One Hour Photo staring Robin Williams: Damn, what a great film!

Cafe Society
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One Hour Photo

This is not a review of the film, I just wanted to share a couple of thoughts with everyone. First off, you must see this film somehow. Either go to one of the “select locations” which are showing it, or just download it off of KaZaA. It doesn’t matter how, just go out and see it somehow! I am simply blown away with it, from top to bottom. The look, the script, the dialogue, and above all else…

…the performance of one Robin Williams. Not only is he IN it, but he gives his best performance ever IMO. Add to that, the fact that he has some of my favorite lines in the entire history of film to work with, and we are really talking. Just hearing him explain and describe pictures, photography, etc… is awesome as hell. This is a total “must see”, and for him to be deprived of any recognition of this role, and film as a whole, will truly be a misfortune.

With a showing like this, it makes one wonder why in the hell he never started doing more “psycho” roles untill here recently (with this film, and also the recent Insomnia). What Alfred Hitchcock did to the shower in terms of how movie viewers look upon it, Mark Romanek has done to one hour photo places, and clerks.

At first thought, a film about a one hour photo place, and clerk could be nothing more than a boring mess. Not here however, it is clever, inventive, and damned chilling. As a matter of fact, this film has a few of the most disturbing scenes I have ever witnessed in the history of my watching film. In short, this is about a one hour photo guy, who obsesses over those individuals who go to him to have their film developed, and it goes from there. I can’t truly say much more than that, as to not give away any of the plot. I will say this though…

…have you ever wondered “what if” that one hour photo guy made just one more extra set of your photos and kept them for himself? This film, well, it really makes you think, not only about one hour photo stations or clerks, but about photography, and more importantly, life in a whole new way.

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Does this mean no one has seen or heard of it? :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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I saw it yesterday. Yowza.

Without giving away too much, I thought that Robin Williams’ character would have been a nice person, save for the mind-crushingly lonely existence…

The depressing part is that if things go wrong, I can see myself in the same position in thirty years (well, without the psychotic episodes).

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My question is how in the world can a film of this quality not get wide-spread release, when it seems that any dime a dozen piece of sh*t can?

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It will get the distribution, eventually. Fox Searchlight put it in a limited release on purpose, probably to build word-of-mouth. Kinda like ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ but probably not with quite the bang that one’s come up with. A lot of movies are released in major cities, then in a couple of venues in other cities, and then spread to the megaplexes. I wouldn’t be able to guess why, but it’s definitely a marketing strategy.

I think it’s great that it’s only at a few locations to begin with, because it builds up so much business for these places. Not that Fox is particularly altruistic, but it works anyway.

I loved the film the first time I saw it. And I hated it the second time. I couldn’t explain why without spoilers.

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I wanted to add that Robin Williams is, indeed, spectacular in the film. The reasons I disliked it so much the second time had nothing to do with his performance. The cinematography was also gorgeous.

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Haven’t seen it yet, but I had to mention one of the great review lines I’ve ever heard. Unfortunately, I have no idea who said it. It was one of those blurbs they add to the TV commercials for a movie.

It was (approximately): “This film does for snapshots what Psycho did for showers.”

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So much has been made lately of Robin Williams’ recent attempt at darker roles. I have to hand it to him - he can be pretty psychotic. I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s nice to see him get something gritty instead of the cutesy funny roles.

I thought this was an interesting film, and I hope that it does get wide release, and that lots of people see it.