Desperate to make this man pay for not appreciating what he had, he follows him and his lover to a hotel. This is also the scene that jumpstarts a disturbing series of events. It goes to show that a lot of what people see in photos can either be fully or partially fabricated and often aren’t the real representation of the true life they are living. However, when it doesn’t arrive, we see that capturing that moment of imperfection just can’t be done, highlighting the quote at the beginning of this article memories that we want to forget are harder to capture. Sitting outside their house, camera in hand, he waits for the expected rage-fueled argument between the couple. Trying to escape his own past, he frequently goes to great lengths to get closer to them, including giving away a free camera as a birthday gift, which later contributes to him getting fired from his job.īut one of the most thought-provoking scenes in the movie comes after he places Will’s affair photos into Nina’s pack of family photos. Although affectionately known to the Yorkins as “Sy, the photo guy,” this is a man who is harboring some darker truths. Envisioning himself entering the Yorkin’s home, using their bathroom, watching their TV, and basically living their life, it is clear that this family’s world is consuming his brain, and his life. However, we see the true extent of his obsession with one of his daydreams. All he sees when he looks at their smiling faces on the printouts is everything he doesn’t have, leading him down a path of comparison that could never end well. Sy lets his lack of any true knowledge about the family get the better of his own mental health. “Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we led a joyous, leisurely existence,” is one of the opening lines of voiceover in the movie and one that truly sets the tone for the events of the film. In an instant, this seemingly perfect image with which he has become enamored is shattered, triggering traumas from his own past, and ultimately leading to a revenge-driven breakdown. However, things turn extremely dark when Sy discovers Nina’s husband, Will ( Michael Vartan), is having an affair. Plastering their family snaps all over his wall at home, his preoccupation with their “perfect” suburban life takes on an increasingly dangerous form. Living a solitary existence, we see a man who is yearning for more in life and soon starts to become obsessed with a woman named Nina ( Connie Nielsen), and her family photos over the years. In what was one of Williams’ most standout performances, he plays Seymour "Sy" Parrish, who works as a photo technician at the local department store. “No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget.” It may have been 20 years since we were treated to those wise words, courtesy of an eerie Robin Williams voiceover, but now, in a world of social media, Mark Romanek’s One Hour Photo couldn’t feel more relevant.
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