One Hour Photo (2002)
77%RT Audience Score: 65%
Awards & Nominations: 6 wins & 22 nominations
Robin Williams is very effective in this creepy, well-shot thriller
One Hour Photo is the kind of movie that will make you want to check your own photo developer for any creepy employees. Robin Williams gives a spine-tingling performance as Sy the Photo Guy, and the suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you’re up for a good scare, this movie delivers. Just don’t blame us if you start having nightmares about your local photo lab.
Production Company(ies)
Columbia Pictures,
Distributor
Fox
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for sexual content and language
Year of Release
2002
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 35m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 6, 2002 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 14, 2003
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, Dylan Smith, Eriq La Salle, directed by Mark Romanek, written by Mark Romanek, drama, R rating, box office gross $31.6M, reviewed by Alexander Walker, Nell Minow, Todd McCarthy, Sandra Hall, Peter Bradshaw, Peter Rainer, Leigh Paatsch, Federico Furzan, Felicia Feaster, Debbie Lynn Elias, Jeffrey Lyles, psychological thriller, obsession, loneliness, stalking, photo development, family, betrayal, morality, suspense, horror, melancholia, realism, anti-climactic ending, sound mix: Surround, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby Stereo, aspect ratio: Flat (1.85:1), produced by Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Stan Wlodkowski
Worldwide gross: $52,223,306
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $86,615,621
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,083
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 9,445,542
US/Canada gross: $31,597,131
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $52,405,819
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,049
US/Canada opening weekend: $321,515
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $533,253
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,389
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $12,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $19,902,751
Production budget ranking: 1,367
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $10,717,631
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $55,995,239
ROI to date (est.): 183%
ROI ranking: 671
Connie Nielsen – Nina Yorkin
Michael Vartan – Will Yorkin
Gary Cole – Bill Owens
Dylan Smith – Jakob Yorkin
Eriq La Salle – Det. James Van Der Zee
Mark Romanek – Director/Writer
Pamela Koffler – Producer
Christine Vachon – Producer
Stan Wlodkowski – Producer
Director(s)
Mark Romanek
Writer(s)
Mark Romanek
Producer(s)
Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Stan Wlodkowski
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
6 wins & 22 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (199) | Top Critics (49) | Fresh (162) | Rotten (37)
One Hour Photo is a very well-made thriller. It shows us Robin Williams extending his acting range into unusual and disturbing material. And as well as causing acute anxiety in its last reels, it delivers a more moral message than most of its kind.
December 14, 2017
Alexander Walker
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
Intensely scary thriller; not for every teen.
December 26, 2010 | Rating: 3/5
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media
TOP CRITIC
This immaculately made first feature from noted musicvid and commercials director Mark Romanek provides Robin Williams with one of his creepiest, atypical roles, and the comic star responds with an unusually restrained performance…
March 27, 2009
Todd McCarthy
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Williams gives quite a performance. It’s as if he’s turned himself into a negative of his usual chipper self.
March 7, 2003
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald
TOP CRITIC
Former video director Mark Romanek has written and directed a very entertaining, if overdesigned movie.
November 19, 2002 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Sy’s scary ordinariness is a species of acting stunt. There’s no there there.
September 26, 2002
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine/Vulture
TOP CRITIC
Not a pretty picture, but you won’t be able to take your eyes off it.
September 11, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Leigh Paatsch
Herald Sun (Australia)
Robin Williams’ finest performance remains valid and extremely creepy even after fifteen years. [Full review in Spanish].
February 17, 2020 | Rating: 3/4
Federico Furzan
Cinelipsis
While honoring the suspense-building engine of a thriller, One Hour Photo creates a nightmare portrait of American life.
February 3, 2020
Felicia Feaster
Creative Loafing
Robin Williams makes this movie what it is with his uncomfortably fearless portrayal of the wimpish Sy the Photo Guy, giving us the creepiest, most spine tingling, heebie-jeebie making film of the year.
November 7, 2019
Debbie Lynn Elias
Behind The Lens
A film that over the years I’ve come to appreciate far more than my initial viewing due to the brilliant, unforgettable effort by Robin Williams who gives one of his most haunting performances.
August 13, 2014 | Rating: 7/10
Jeffrey Lyles
Lyles’ Movie Files
Without Robin Williams, ‘One Hour Photo’ is just another predictable B movie thriller. He’s like that slow train wreck, personified, that people can’t seem to take their eyes off.
May 10, 2013 | Rating: 7/10
James Plath
Movie Metropolis…
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 – the family about whom he is obsessed, than anyone else. 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.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels praises Robin Williams’ “refreshingly sinister” performance in One Hour Photo.
Mark-Romanek.jpg
