Film

One Hour Photo (2002)

Director: Mark Romanek

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Sy Parrish (Williams), a mild-mannered photo booth op, gets rather too attached to some of his regular customers, a young couple (Nielsen and Vartan) and their son, making copies of their 24-sets and pasting them all over his apartment. His prurience disrupts the otherwise narcissistic loop of private-use photo production, and before you can say 'Manhunter' he's making the Peeping Tom movie journey from spectator to participant, and attracting unwelcome police attention. The film is at its best before the suspense narrative kicks in. It has arresting things to say about how the family photo is used less to record than to project, and how far that projection can be from the truth. That Parrish buys into the myth is his tragedy. The story is told more or less from his point of view. Consequently, the family members are photographed and directed as if they're in an advert or a professionally lit home video - a rewarding strategy, until we're required to care about them.

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