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Apart from Robin Williams' obvious Hook, Mrs Doubtfire and Jumanji fame, I will admit that I hadn't watched any of the actor's other films until a couple of nights ago. Feeling naive, I decided that I would give this One Hour Photo a try, considering that I had a few spare hours in that particular evening and everyone had been raving about it. I have to say that I ended up being very surprised (and even very impressed) after witnessing his performance.

Truth be told, I never knew that Robin Williams could portray an antagonist with such conviction. His appearance as the loner Sy in One Hour Photo is so creepy that you become not only disturbed but fascinated by director Romanek's character study. I developed a strong admiration for Williams' acting talents purely as a result of viewing this movie.

His character is a middle-aged man working in a photo shop of his local department store. From the way that he moves and smiles around the workplace, we get the impression that there's something not quite right about Sy. This is confirmed when we are later taken into his home and see pictures of the Yorkins family (his regular customers) neatly covering the white walls of his living room.

We get the impression that Sy is disturbed character, obsessing over the perfect image of the family, but he's not a million miles away from the realms of normality that we can't relate to him; he's just a very lonely man. There's a particularly eye-opening dream sequence where we see Sy settling into the home of his "victims", where he plays with the dog, relaxes with a beer, and even takes his time doing a number two sat on the family toilet.

Some might agree that One Hour Photo is sick in a passionately-romantic kind of way. When Sy discovers the husband is having an affair, he realises that the family he relied on for a sense of happiness is not as perfect as he once thought. So he feels the need to plot his revenge to protect the wife and child he has developed an affection for; Romanek's script is clever, though, as the character never goes completely off the rails in the sense that we judge him as a complete psychopath or manic serial killer. (Would it be a stretch to say that we start to sympathise with his attempt to force a moral ideal upon the world? That's how I felt, anyway.)

The fascinating thing about One Hour Photo is that it never really explores the reasons why Sy is the way he is (apart from his obvious loneliness). It's a deliberately subtle film, in the sense that nothing really much happens. Romanek wants you think for yourself rather than going with a pigeon-holed evaluation of the character; he allows you to analyze Sy's psychosis and come up with your own conclusion. It's the type of film that you'll want to talk about with your friends long after the credits have rolled, considering that the main character feels so real.

With the movie developing primarily from the perspective of Sy, it is a little disappointing that the characters of the Yorkins family are somewhat underdeveloped. One Hour Photo, however, is still a fascinating movie that'll make you think twice about Robin Williams' diversity as an actor. The visuals are striking and the score is as haunting as they come, which both contribute to a tense atmosphere throughout.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2008.