From Doubtfire to Demented, Williams Completes Acting About-Face

"One Hour Photo"

Robin Williams won't give you the giggles as much as he'll give you the willies in his new film.

"One Hour Photo" joins the upper echelon of creep-fests by choosing to focus on the big picture rather than settling for disjointed individual scenes.

Williams' character, Seymour "Sy" Parrish, is a disturbed man. This fact is clear from the opening scene, which finds him sitting in a brightly lit interrogation room and being grilled by Detective Van Der Zee (Eriq La Salle).

The movie then flashes back the lives of the Yorkins -- husband Will (Michael Vartan), wife Nina (Connie Nielsen) and preteen son Jakob (Dylan Smith). On the surface, they come close to being the perfect family, but there's more to them than meets the eye.

Their paths soon cross with that of Sy, who works at the photo development lab in a local Wal-Mart-like superstore. Thanks to the fact that Nina brings in rolls of film on a consistent basis, he creates an ideal portrait of her family.

Apparently having no friends or family of his own, Sy pays a bit too much attention to the Yorkins. He's memorized their address, he correctly guesses Jakob's new age after seeing the boy's birthday photos and he makes copies of their pictures for himself -- before covering his wall with them. In his fantasies, he is an extremely close friend of the family. The Yorkins, meanwhile, remain fairly oblivious to "Sy the Photo Guy" and his psychosis.

The previously non-threatening Sy inevitably goes off the deep end, but the film never slips like he does. Thanks to the competent work of director Mark Romanek, the film continues to flow smoothly despite the change in tone.

"One Hour Photo" begins as an interesting drama and ends as a taut, sensible thriller. It never paints Sy as a one-trick pony and even goes so far as to point a finger at the Yorkins. The family's own problems become painfully obvious as the audience gets a better picture of them.

The film effectively compares exposure to secrecy and light to dark. When the brightness of the photo lab submits to the darkness of Sy's apartment, it becomes evident that the man has become a victim of his own fantasy.

Williams is convincingly creepy, using just the right amount of subtlety and intensity whenever either is called for.

With the help of insightful writing, he provokes thought in his numerous voiceovers, which include the photo guy's observations of human nature and of the power of pictures. Sy's work as a photo specialist is one of two things that he cares about -- the other being the Yorkins.

Sy is the third in a line of recent dark characters that Williams has chosen to play after being a vindictive clown in "Death to Smoochy" and a cold, quiet killer in "Insomnia."

It's a pretty stunning about-face for a guy who's done everything from making the alien catch phrase "nanu nanu" a pop-culture winner to disguising himself as an aging British nanny -- all in the name of being funny.

But he pulls off the sudden shift, as Sy alternately arouses chills and sympathy. As pieces of his past are uncovered, we increasingly understand why he has latched onto this family. He's much more than your average sicko, as his hope of being part of the perfect family is something that anyone can relate to.

"One Hour Photo" just goes to show that Williams always is able to captivate -- even after the laughter stops.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.