Rating: *****
Genre: artistic thriller-cum-voyeurism

robin williams

One Hour Photo is something of a one-man show, all by Robin Williams. Told in few words, few scenes, simple film direction, it is one of the most emotionally provoking films I’ve ever watched. (It’s about as intense as ‘The Hours’, if not more.) A hundred, thousand subtle emotions blended into a beautiful, creepy piece of art work, it’s a work of ‘mime’… It is precisely how a picture tells a thousand words.

All throughout the film, Williams’ sterling portrayal of sadness, delusion and such a powerful hunger of belonging wounds up the tension right up to the breaking point. Much needed emotional relief is awarded at rare intervals, where we are brought from the past to the present and back again. This is a very ‘real’ film… It portrays all the little things in life… the little actions that we carry out from day to day, seemingly inconsequential yet actually, when we think about it… what we do daily is a direct result of influence from past experiences. Another reason why I say this is a very ‘real’ film is how the film largely falls in the greys… There’s no good, no bad, just an entire multitude of shades of grey - ash, pale, midnight, dirt, matt… and so on… You can’t say that Williams is depraved, or evil, or just plain queer… You even begin to understand and think from his point of view at the very end of the movie, despite all the freakiness in his nature. I think that’s only possible with such impeccable acting skills.

I think this film brings to mind how a film isn’t decided by its content, or its cinematography, and least of all, the budget spent on the film. I bet ‘One Hour Photo’ cost close to peanuts to produce (oh oops, well, though peanuts now may mean like um… at least half a mil here… heh.) One phrase simply sums up the film - beautiful economy, both as in the budget, and in the unnecessity of huge emotional outbursts.

The ending of the movie is rather fantastic too! But I shan’t reveal it here, it’d spoil your enjoyment of the purely artisticism of the movie, if there’s such a word indeed… Anyway, I think that every single actor (and actress) did a brilliant job with emotional expressions in this film!

Definitely worth watching… It’s also only 1 hr 30min, just the right amount of time to build up the tension, sustain it and top it all off with an almost dream-like, perfect ending. Or so he thinks…

Finally, thanks Cheryl, for recommending me this film ages and ages ago… I finally got hold of it!