Loneliness takes different shapes and is expressed in manifold ways. In The Tugman's Passage, Edward Hoagland described it with the following image: "I am so lonely now that it is like a hemorrhage." In our times, loneliness and the yearning for relief from it through intimacy, companionship, or community seems to be growing. Divorce and aging are resulting in large numbers of singles, widows, and widowers. As the makeup of the society changes, more and more groups are left on the outside looking in, feeling that they don't belong. Many lonely souls also feel homesick. They yearn for a a home and especially a family of their own. Sometimes the only way to get one is to fashion it in the imagination.
Sy Parrish (Robin Williams) is a meticulous photo developer at a large Savmart discount store. He takes great pride in what he does and treats it with reverence. His favorite client is Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielson), an attractive suburban mother of nine-year old Jake (Dylan Smith) and wife of Will (Michael Vartan), a handsome man who is very involved in his work. Over the years, the Yorkins have chronicled the holidays, vacations, and special moments in their lives with photographs. Unbeknownst to them, Sy has made copies of the pictures and put them on the wall of his apartment. It is his strange way of making himself a part of the family, by being their imaginary Uncle Sy.
In his first feature film, writer and director Mark Romanek has fashioned a profoundly telling drama about the chilliness of suburbia and the antiseptic quality of places like the Savmart store where Sy works. When this diminutive man behind the counter tries to reach out to Nina, she is oblivious to his desperation. Her son Jake sees it right away, and in one of the best scenes in the film, shares with her how bad he feels for Sy since he's such a sad man. Nina suggests that they take a moment and send him some good thoughts to make him feel better. They do it and we see Sy in his kitchen pausing briefly before taking a drink of something.
Later, this lonely man visits with Jake after seeing him at soccer practice. He tries to give the boy a gift but he says his parents won't allow him to keep it. A brief encounter with Will in the store is especially awkward. Sy tells him how lucky he is to have such a fine family. Will doesn't know what to make of the comment since he's not used to clerks intruding on his private life.
When Sy's supervisor (Gary Cole) discovers that a large number of photos under his watch have not been accounted for, he fires him. This trauma causes the mild-mannered man to express his dark side in a series of bold actions that have consequences for the Yorkin family. As Sy observes, the phrase "snapshot" originally was a hunting term.
The film really opens up the role photographs play in the lives of so many families. They can give us access to large lumps of experience and rites of passage but they do not tell the whole story. Or as Sy remarks at one point, "No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget." One Hour Photo is an intense and effective film about loneliness and the chilly anonymity of the environments where so many of us spend so much of our time.
The DVD includes an audio commentary with director Mark Romanek and star Robin Williams, as well as three featurettes: the Sundance Channel's "Anatomy of a Scene," a Cinemax "Making of..." special, and a Charlie Rose interview.
