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According to Robert Scucci
| Published
We all love Robin Williams for enchanting our childhood with movies like Mrs. Doubtfire, Patch Adams, and, my personal favorite, his portrayal of the happy, tumbling blue genie with a heart of gold from Aladdin. When I was 14 years old, I witnessed Williams’ brilliant transformation from exuberantly animated and wholesome to menacing and calculating when he decided to enter the thriller genre with the 2002 film. One hour photo. Like many fans of Williams’ filmography, I was captivated by his portrayal of “Sy the Photo Guy,” a well-intentioned stalker who isn’t necessarily a villain, but rather a man living in complete isolation to the point where he acts. incredibly little out of pocket to an unsuspecting family as a means of combating his loneliness.
What’s most impressive about Williams’ Sy the Photo Guy is how hard it is to blame him for his problematic behavior. One hour photo because he is such a likable character while he it isn’t. What’s more, when Sy’s behavior escalates to the point where he commits unspeakable acts, you still feel bad for him because it’s obvious he doesn’t know any better.
Sy is not the hero, he is just the main character
One hour photo centers on the life of Seymour “Sy” Parrish, a lonely photo technician working for the wholesaler SavMart. Known for his obsessive attention to detail, Sy takes great pride in his work, as developing a film that includes his customers’ precious family moments is something he does not take lightly. In Sya’s mind, photos immortalize happy moments that people don’t want to forget.
After all, when a house burns down, the first thing people try to recover is their photo collection, Sy says.
Through Sy’s narration, he proclaims that people don’t go to other stores like Rexall or Fotek because their technicians don’t care about the craft the way he does. Sy processes his customer’s photos as if they were his own in just an hour, and his customers love how dedicated he is to his work, which he sees as a vital public service.
The Yorkin family
Outside of his work in One hour photoSy leads an empty life and his social awkwardness prevents him from forming meaningful relationships. Desperate for a sense of belonging, Sy becomes ensconced in the Yorkin family. Although it’s never explicitly stated, it’s obvious that Sy has a crush on Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) and always treats her strangely when she’s putting off movie roles she needs to develop.
When Nina first stops by SavMart with her son Jake (Dylan Smith), Sy shows affection by giving the boy a free camera for his birthday, which is against company policy and one of many awkward moves he makes toward the Yorkins .
Sy is in love with the Yorkins because he sees them as the ideal family he never had. However, Sy does not only look good in a professional environment One hour photowhich is evident when we look at his home life. Sy, who lives alone in his apartment with only his hamster for company, has an entire wall of his house decorated with pictures of the Yorkins on various family outings and has vivid fantasies that place him in their family.
One hour photo sees Sy’s behavior escalate as he goes from innocently chatting with the Yorkins at work to following them around town in an attempt to feel some sort of human connection with a family that is completely oblivious to his existence just because he’s just their photographer at the SavMart and they have your own life.
Sya’s loneliness is noticed by Nino when he follows her to the mall and pretends that their meeting was a coincidence, which as far as he knows it is. As he sits near Nina and mentions how he imagines her family referring to him as “Uncle Sy,” he chokes up and lets out an awkward laugh that would make anyone feel bad for the guy.
Things get out of hand quickly
The behavior of Sy v One hour photo he becomes increasingly erratic, and as the film progresses, he gets a little too close to comfort with the Yorkins. Stealing family photos (for years) is a heinous act in itself, but when his fantasies and outbursts begin to affect his professional life, Sy ends up going off the deep end despite his good intentions. Watching his dream ideal life translate into his reality is truly heartbreaking, even though he is clearly in the wrong because all Sy wants is to feel loved and appreciated for his acts of kindness.
Streaming One Hour Photo
One hour photo is a heavy watch because Robin WilliamsHis performance makes you want to see Sy Photo Guy find happiness, but he’s gone too far for you to really want to root for him. Like I said, he’s a likable character until he’s not. It’s easy to infer that his affection for the Yorkin family comes from a dark, lonely, and desperate place, but it crosses too many lines to ever make them feel the same way about him.
If you want to see the late great Robin Williams manipulate you into caring about Sy the Photo Guy despite his problematic behavior, you can stream One hour photo on Hulu at the time of this writing.
