Fascinating Look at the Desolate Human Mind

Even though photography and cinema are cousins (the latter being nothing but still frames running at 24 frames per second), films that bind the two together have been few and far between. In 1966, Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni came up with Blow Up—a major plot point of which formed the crux of what is inarguably the best black comedy made in India till date—Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. 

In Blow Up Michael Hemming’s fashion photographer character Thomas’ camera became a witness to a crime that might or might not have occurred. Around 36 years later came another film, in which the camera once again played a pivotal role—not that of a fact-finder, but a seeker of justice. Though it may seem a little far-fetched analogy to some, but after viewing One Hour Photo (2002), one might be tempted to state that what Jaws did to the ocean, the film, in its own small way, did the same to the guy at the neighbourhood photo store one used to give one’s film rolls to develop (before the advent of the ubiquitous digital cameras, that is).

Seymour ’Sy’ Parrish (Robin Williams) is someone who all of us have met. He takes our film rolls, develops, and prints them, and more than often delivers the prints before the stipulated period of time. He is mild-mannered, soft-spoken, with a disarming smile. And if you are one of his regular customers, sometimes, just sometimes, he makes the prints 5 X 7, when you wanted the standard 4 X 6—at no extra cost.

Sy Parrish is the proverbial fly on the wall. Sy Parrish harbours a secret. Sy Parrish is a human time bomb about to explode.

Working behind the same counter at SavMart for almost two decades, Sy follows the same routine everyday. After work, he visits the same diner, has the same food for dinner, goes back to his apartment, and watches TV—alone. And when he is not busy staring at the reruns, he is engrossed with one wall of his apartment.
 
He looks at it and feels something that he has yearned for a long time—a sense of belonging. That wall, you see, is dotted with photographs of one particular family—the Yorkins—a family that Sy, has, over the years, grown unnaturally close to. Not in reality, only in his mind.

The Yorkins (an obvious take on the words ‘your kin’) comprise Nina (Connie Nielsen, of Gladiator fame), her husband Will (Michael Vartan, from the hit TV series Alias) and their adorable son Jake (Dylan Smith). Sy has a particular fascination towards Jake and prides in calling himself Jake’s ‘Uncle Sy’. 

So, what happens when Uncle Sy gets hold of an incriminating piece of evidence that shatters his notion of the Yorkins being the ideal, happy, made-for-each other family? 

The pent up emotions were building, the stress was gradually reaching a boiling point, the frustration was showing underneath the apparently placid face—all it needed was one more chink to appear to shatter Sy’s already shaky mental state.

In this context, it might be mentioned that Sy’s surname, Parrish, has an interesting connotation in the events that eventually unfold in the film. A ‘parish’, as we know is the ‘area around a church for which a priest is responsible’. Unsurprisingly, in the film, Sy takes it upon himself to ‘right the wrong’ that he deems has been inflicted upon a family he has become obsessed with. One Hour Photo is a fascinating look at the desolate human mind. It is a character study par excellence. Ace music video director Mark Romanek (veteran of the visually rich Madonna’s Rain and the striking Scream video starring Janet and Michael Jackson, among others), in his debut feature film has shown a maturity in handling the camera that many established directors strive to master.

The elements of photography have been skillfully woven into the cinematography. Nina and Sy emerging from the elevator is instantly reminiscent of a photograph gradually developing; there are photographic terms and references galore, and last, but not least, it is the camera that becomes the tool of revenge that Sy, in a manner least expected, unleashes.

Robin Williams, in his third venture at exploring the dark side of human nature (after Death To Smoochy and Insomnia) comes up trumps. It takes a superhuman effort not to like ‘Sy, the photo guy’. And that is where the accomplishments of both the actor and the director lie.
 
Bereft of all the technical wizardry that normally accompanies his music videos, Romanek has crafted a tale that could easily have turned Sy into a monster caricature. Instead, it becomes a probe into the psyche of someone who has, for a long time, been very much a part of all our memorable occasions, but somehow has always been missing from the viewfinder of life.