I was originally going to post this in Strangeluv's Typecasted Actors and Actors Playing Against Type topic (check it out if you haven't already because Strangeluv might be the only person in this forum who makes interesting topics) but I started getting too off topic so I decided HEY I AM GOING TO MAKE A TOPIC.

Before I begin, for those of you who haven't seen One Hour Photo and want to know what it is (and also shouldn't be reading this topic because how are you supposed to discuss a movie if you haven't even seen it you stupid jerk) HERE ARE SOME LINKS:

IMDb
Wikipedia

Ok let's get going.

Ok fuck I just realized that by copying those links I lost the stuff that I had typed up ok let me start over.

As it was, One Hour Photo was a pretty decent movie.  There were a lot of stylistic choices that I personally didn't like such as the use of music and the use of the color white which I will go into later.  But those were minor issues that only bothered me because I'm a douchebag/film major, which is basically the same thing.  So yeah One Hour Photo was kinda fun and Robin Williams did a great job and yeah it wasn't a bad movie.

But man I heard all this shit about how Robin Williams's character was so creepy and weird and man the movie was SO GOOD and blah blah blah and uh you know what Robin William's character was kind of full of shit to be honest.  Don't get me wrong; Robin Williams did a great job but certain aspects of the character weren't very believable. 

Oh by the way SPOILER ALERT yeah i almost forgot about that

First of all, the WALL OF PHOTOS.  That came off to me as hokey and manufactured, by which I mean that it was added not necessarily because that's what the character would do but because the director thought WOULDN'T IT BE CREEPY IF HE HAD A WALL OF PHOTOS.  I don't really see why anyone would spend so much time taping a bunch of pictures to a wall.  I understand that Sy is weird and lonely and all that shit but WALL OF PHOTOS come on.  I think it would have been a lot more realistic and effective if he had a bunch of photo albums that he considered his family photos.  He obviously fantasizes about being part of the family so why wouldn't he have a bunch of family photo albums?  Hell he could even copy and paste himself into some photos that would be pretty creepy and kind of believable. 

Also the part where he FLIPS OUT of William Yorkin and that other bitch.  That scene was just too ridiculous for me honestly!  I was actually pissed that he didn't kill the guy.  Like, I got the idea that Sy felt betrayed by Will's affair, which I think is a really interesting aspect of his character.  But then instead of killing Will or even CUTTING HIM UP he just takes pictures.  Dumb.  Now it doesn't seem so much that Sy felt betrayed but rather that he was just pissed off that Will would do that to his wife and kid.  Fuck that!  That's not nearly as interesting. 

In other words, Sy's reaction should have been HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO NINA, JAKE, AND ME?? but it was just HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO NINA AND JAKE?? do you get what im sayin

Of course I'm not saying that those suddenly make Sy a badly written character, just that he could have (and, at least in my opinion, should have) been a better one.  I really liked the scene where Sy goes into the house and puts on the sweatshirt and talks to the dog and pretends like he's part of the family, then the real family comes home and he's like OH SHIT but they're like HEY UNCLE SY BLAH BLAH and then whoops it was just a fantasy!  Also when he's talking to Nina and he says "you know I almost feel like... 'Uncle Sy' HEH HEH... HEH."  That was pretty pathetic so yeah it was really good.

Other than just Sy, though, a lot of the movie felt too MANUFACTURED.  Or, well, pretty much just the use of the color white, but that makes up a lot of the movie anyway.  I understand that it was supposed to give this sense of EMOTIONAL EMPTINESS or some shit, but it was used so much that I felt like the director was trying to drill into my head HEY LOOK HE'S EMOTIONAL EMPTY HE NEEDS TO FEEL FULFILLED THAT'S WHY EVERY THING'S WHITE.  When his apartment is first shown every thing is white.  And not just the majority of things; EVERY GOD DAMN THING WAS WHITE.  Things like that are ok in movies that are very stylized, but this wasn't one of those movies so it was just annoying.  This really isn't that big of a deal though because it wasn't overdone after that first scene in his house but still.

Also one last note:  the dream.  That was so dumb and unnecessary and it seemed like another case of the director thinking HEY WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF I DID THIS HEH so yeah.

ANYWAY all in all One Hour Photo wasn't a bad movie but certain aspects of it could have been better AND WOULD HAVE BEEN HAD I MADE IT (IM A FILM MAJOR I KNOW EVERYTHING)

edit: haha man this topic is terrible sorry guys.  anyway discuss what the hell those pictures at the end of the movie were supposed to be i think i missed something

Woo boy, One Hour Photo. One Hour Photo felt, to me, like it had A LOT of potential and it just wasn't used. The character was Sy was really well-played by Robin Williams. His performance was chilling. Something about a BLONDE ROBIN WILLIAMS kind of made the whole thing feel creepy and he just had this overall look that you knew something was wrong with this guy and yet, he looked like a really nice old man. Williams did a really good job as portraying Sy as the nice old man who breaks store protocol to make people happy and as the obsessed creep who all of a sudden is thinking the word 'snapshot' as a hunting term.

Roman's right about certain elements of his character being too HOKEY though. The wall of photos was a great example of this. They went overboard with that. Even the whole 'Christmas card-like' scene where he imagines himself in their photo in the Santa Claus hat was alright with me. There are some terrific scenes in the film that carry his character's obsession such as when he imagines himself doing regular stuff in the Yorkin house. Watching TV, taking a shit. That scene was terrific! But it was spoilt by the hokey ones that seemed to go a more HOLLYWOOD DIRECTION to make Sy DEMENTED OBSESSED PSYCHO JOHN DOE.

The movie is sort of killed by BEGINNING IN AN INTERROGATION ROOM. I felt the whole movie was not just about exploring Sy's character but getting hooked on the series of events and wondering what the hell he's going to do! Is he going to get away?! I guess if you're looking at it like just wondering WOW HOW DID THIS OLD GUY END UP IN JAIL, it's cool. But it killed it for me because I was expecting him to have killed Will Yorkin but instead... the whole climax plays out like  HEY LET ME SEE YO DICK SNAP SNAP LET ME SEE YOU SUCK HIS DICK SNAP SNAP  which was pretty disturbing and all but left me unsatisfied. Not saying I wanted him to cut Will up but as Roman said, Sy felt like he was part of the family and should have said more about how it hurt HIM AS A PERSON than the wife and kid. That would have been really great and a big step up for Sy's demented persona if that happened. But it didn't.

All of that aside, I'll agree with Roman and say that this was a good watch. Could have been done a lot better. But watchable, especially just for Robin Williams' performance.

robin william's character's dad made child porn with him

the photos at the end were in reference to earlier in the film when he said something about people only taking pictures of the things they wanted to remember

Yeah. I don't know if it was his dad or what but the movie definitely hinted that he was the victim of some kind of child pornography.

That being said, I really thought they made good use of uh.. I dunno how to call it but 'philosophy of photography' in the movie? Sy's little inner ramblings about his job and how he had his personal philosophies about it. I enjoyed that a lot.

Also, about the colour scheme - I wasn't really distracted by it. But idk, I won't see things in a FILM STUDENT way, maybe. It's not just emptiness but like an empty photograph not yet developed or a photograph snapped when the lighting was too bright and the colours came out distorted and flawed - and Sy loathed that.

definitely hinted, that's what the whole "TAKE IT IN YOUR HANDS, NO DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH" was about, and the "SMILE!"

i haven't seen this in a while but i think the only drawback i remember is how chummy they were, and also the snapshots of the boss's daughter seemed out of character

It's not just emptiness but like an empty photograph not yet developed or a photograph snapped when the lighting was too bright and the colours came out distorted and flawed - and Sy loathed that.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's a much more interesting way of putting it.  Even so, I think it could have been used differently somehow.  I don't know whatever it wasn't really a huge deal.

 

I overthink lots of stuff. The director probably wasn't thinking of that because he thought WALL OF PHOTOS and WEIRD DREAM were good ideas.