Guide Rating -

Tagline: "There's nothing more dangerous than a familiar face."

Length: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content and language

Robin Williams gives a memorable performance in "One Hour Photo," one of the creepiest psychological thrillers I've ever seen. I recently watched this movie at home on DVD and found it very compelling. The DVD comes with quite a few bonus materials, and I've listed them below.

"One Hour Photo" opens with a mild-mannered, middle-aged man (Robin Williams) being booked at a police station. We learn from a police detective that the man's name is Sy Parrish. The detective asks Sy, "What was it about William Yorkin that upset you so? I mean, what did he do to provoke all of this?"

The film then flashes back to the events that led to Sy's being at the police station. We meet the Yorkin family, which consists of the thirty-something Nina (Connie Nielsen), her husband Will (Michael Vartan), and their nine-year-old son Jake. They wear designer clothing and live in a beautiful suburban house that looks like something out of a magazine.

Nina drives their Mercedes SUV over to SavMart, a sprawling, well-stocked, fluorescent-lit department store. She drops off film at the photo finishing department, where she is waited on by Sy. We gradually learn that the only connection between Sy and the Yorkins is that he's the technician who's been developing their family photos for years. We're a little surprised that although Nina asks for two sets of prints, Sy writes the digit "3" in the box labeled "NO. OF PRINTS."

When SavMart closes for the day, Sy dines alone in a coffee shop, where he peruses a set of the Yorkins' photos he just developed. The pictures were taken at a party celebrating Jake's ninth birthday. Sy shows the photos to a waitress, proudly claiming that the Yorkins are his relatives. Sy then drives to his modest downtown apartment, where he lives alone. We soon see that Sy has covered an entire wall with family photos of the smiling Yorkins.

Sy is a terribly lonely man who's so needy he's come to think of himself as a member of the Yorkin family. And the hundreds of pictures Sy has seen of the Yorkins have led him to think of them as a perfect family. But one day Sy stumbles across evidence that Will Yorkin is neglectful of his wife and son. That's when the warped photo technician grabs a big knife and sets out to put things right.

"One Hour Photo" is the debut film of writer-director Mark Romanek, and I think he really captured something about the way many consumer transactions today are dehumanizing, both for the customer and for the employee. I believe the movie also lends insight into our compulsion to keep a photographic record of our lives. As Sy explains in voice-over, we do it because it says, "Someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture."

I think Robin Williams is at his very best in his chilling portrayal of the deranged Sy Parrish. He managed to completely creep me out, while at the same time I felt sorry for him. I also liked Gary Cole in the role of the unsympathetic manager of the SavMart store.

Near the end of the film, Robin Williams does a fine piece of acting in delivering an explanation for Sy's behavior, but I found the explanation itself to be a little too convenient somehow. Still, Williams and writer-director Mark Romanek have created a character who will haunt me for a very long time.

Special Features of the DVD:

• Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
• English 5.1 Dolby Surround
• Spanish Dolby Surround
• French Dolby Surround
• English Subtitles
• Spanish Subtitles
• Feature Commentary by Writer-Director Mark Romanek and Robin Williams
• Cinemax "Making Of" Featurette
• "Charlie Rose Show" Interview of Mark Romanek and Robin Williams
• Sundance Channel "Anatomy of a Scene" Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots (3)