One Hour Photo (2002) - Romanek, Williams and Co. capture a troubling thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Psychological Thriller of the Year 

 

Star Robin Williams develops film wearing white gloves on this poster for Mark Romanek's One Hour Photo

The kind department store photo developer Sy does his job with care and a smile. But he is in fact a devastatingly lonely man, who over the course of several years have brought home with him the photos of one specific family. Now he loses his job, which is his only connection to reality.

 

One Hour Photo is written and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker Mark Romanek (Static (1985)).

Robin Williams (Aladdin (1992)) once again shows new facets to his vast acting talent as Sy, the tormented protagonist that he makes us both feel sympathy and fear for here. Connie Nielsen (Gladiator (2000)) and the rest of the supporting cast are also fantastic.

One Hour Photo is almost mechanical in its visual competence, (Romanek is an accomplished music video director; Jeff Cronenweth (Hitchcock (2012)) did the cinematography here.) The film is tight and thrilling. One Hour Photo never sensationalizes its plot. It is a role-model of a psychological thriller.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $

Box office: 52.2 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.35 times its cost)

[One Hour Photo premiered 13 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2000 - January 2001 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #24 to a 321k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3 and in 1,332 theaters (different weeks), grossing 31.5 mil. $ ( 60.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.3 mil. $ (6.3 %) and Australia with 2.2 mil. $ (5.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Romanek returned with scores of music video and theatrically with Never Let Me Go (2010). Williams returned in Death to Smoochy (2002). One Hour Photo is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of One Hour Photo? 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - Fincher's Nordic noir is technically astute but overlong and redundant

♥♥♥

1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (lost to Cliff Martinez for Drive)

The slick, black and white poster for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

QUICK REVIEW:

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist has to leave his magazine workplace in Stockholm due to a libel case and finds an interesting freelance job in working with a younger female hacker at searching out the fate of a teenage girl, who disappeared into thin air 40 years ago.

Following the excellent Scandinavian adaptation of Stieg Larsson's 2005 bestselling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, the first in his Millennium trilogy, Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009), it is impossible not to view this second adaptation just two years later by great Denver-born director David Fincher (Zodiac (2007)) as redundant.
Daniel Craig (The Golden Compass (2007)) and particularly Oscar-nominated Rooney Mara (Side Effects (2013)) as cool hacker Lisbeth Salander give outstanding performances, while Stellan Skarsgaard (Breaking the Waves (1996)) plays his Martin character a bit too pleasantly.
Fincher's visual flair is unmistakable, realized in fine, Oscar-nominated cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth (Down with Love (2003)), and especially the car scenes are handsomely shot. The score by Trent Reznor (The Social Network (2010)) and Atticus Ross (Blackhat (2015)) is quivering in its vivaciousness. The Oscar-winning, stressful editing by Kirk Baxter (Gone Girl (2014)) and Angus Wall (Panic Room (2002)) gives the film an impression of constant development, although the plot is stretched out on a playtime (158 minutes) which is too long, and we for instance have to watch what must nearly be an unequaled amount of cigarettes get lit. In Steve Zaillian's (American Gangster (2007)) script, we are far across the one hour mark before the Blomkvist and Salander plot-lines collide, which is far too long. After the climax, the makers also go to great lengths in order to try to weave the Wennerström plot to an end.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an alright film, but a far cry from the lean thrills of the first adaptation.

Related review:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) - An exciting adult ride in sadism and mystery from cold cold Sweden 

Watch the admittedly bold and awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 232.6 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Dragon Tattoo's development began in 2009, unrelated to the Scandinavian film, and it was shot in September - December 2010 on location in Sweden, the UK and US. It opened to great reviews and a 21 mil. $ first domestic weekend. It grossed 102.5 mil. $ (44 % of the total gross) in North America. It went unreleased in India and Vietnam due to the strict censorship in those countries. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK (18.7 mil. $) and Japan (15.8 mil. $). The film has made an additional 22.1 mil. $ on DVD/Bluray. It was 5 time Oscar-nominated; for Actress (Mara), Cinematography, Editing (won), Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is 86 % certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 7.6 critical average. There is still talk of Fincher directing the second and third book in the trilogy as well, although it will likely never happen in my opinion.]

What do you think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?
If you have read the book(s) and/or seen the Scandinavian film(s), please make your verdicts known