The Trailer

The Plot

Middle aged Sy Parrish works as a technician at a one hour photo lab located in a SavMart store in a suburban mall. Sy is a lonely man, never having had any friends. He knows much about his customers through the photographs they have developed. But he knows more about the Yorkin family – specifically Nina Yorkin and her adolescent son Jake Yorkin, the two in the family who drop off and pick up the family’s photofinishing – than anyone else, the family about who he is obsessed. Nina’s husband, Will Yorkin, is incidental to his obsession since Sy has only seen him in photographs. Sy’s obsession includes fantasizing about being their favorite “Uncle Sy”. He has even been making an extra set of prints for himself of all of their photographs since Jake was a newborn. After an incident at work and after Sy finds out more about the family through a set of photographs, he decides to right the injustices he sees in the only way he knows how. His actions demonstrate his true mental state.
(Source IMDB)

The Breakdown

Who is in it? Robin Williams
Genre: Drama-Thriller
Was it dramatic and thrilling? It’s dramatic more than thrilling.
Would this movie be for every drama or thriller fan? Yes.
Should you see it? Totally.

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The Verdict

The strangest part of this movie is also it’s claim to fame in my opinion, and that’s having Robin Williams be not only serious but also a deranged bad guy. I originally watched this movie because I really dig photography, but it really had nothing to do with it. I was pleasantly surprised to see Robin Williams in a serious role, and sort of put off by his lonely and sort of invisible character. The idea of this movie is a really good one because you really had to trust the people who developed your film because most people couldn’t do it themselves. You wouldn’t think in a million years that the person developing your film would be a crazy stalker.

Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), known as ‘Sy’ is one of the workers of the One Hour Photo department of a retail store. He takes great care to make sure the photos are the best they can look, and knows the customers on a first name basis. One woman in particular Nina Yorkin is his favorite and he orders an extra set of prints to keep for himself every time she comes in. He is basically in love with her and really cares about her and her son but is creepy and stalker-ish even having day dreams of entering their home and being with them while they are away.

Sy lives a plain life in a small apartment, with no friends or relationships to speak of. He has a shrine that takes up an entire wall in his apartment of Nina and her family and sort of lives through her pictures so to speak. After a while, his manager notices all of the prints that are coming up missing which totals somewhere in the hundreds and fires him. He is allowed to finish out the week and clear out his things and leave. During his last few days a redheaded female drops off some photos and once developed he notices that she is with a man intimately. The man happens to be Nina’s husband Will.

Sy is outraged and inserts photos with Nina’s pictures so she will find them. Sy then takes pictures of his manager’s daughter playing in the yard in front of their home for some reason to get the police to watch him. As the police are tracking him down he finds Will and his mistress at a hotel room and makes them perform sex acts on each other at knife point as he takes pictures of them making harsh demands. After he leaves the hotel he is apprehended by the police and confesses the ordeal to the detective. During the last bit of the conversation he eludes to the fact that he had been exploited by his parents to do child pornography. As it turns out he basically wanted to punish Will because he had everything he ever wanted and was somehow determined to ruin it. When the interrogation was completed the detective let him see his photos he had taken in the hotel room. The photos werent of Will and his mistress performing sex acts, it was of random shots of the hotel bathroom. The End.

Basically making Will and his mistress do the things he made them do was his way of not only confronting his past, but also punishing Will. I really have to hand it to the writers of this story because it was a really good script. Robin Williams can do more than be funny and outrageous and you really forget the fact this is a really REALLY funny man in this role. I rate this movie a 7/10.

Official Nutshell-Movies Explanation

One Hour Photo (2002): A crazy photo developer goes to jail for confronting a man that was cheating on his wife.