****WARNING-----SPOILERS ahead!!!********

An interesting variation on the psycho-stalker theme with Robin Williams playing against type in a very understated role.
If anybody thought of an actor to play the shy, subdued character of Sy, Robin Williams would have been last on their list and yet he pulls it off with an eerie conviction.
One Hour photo is filmed in the very same clinical and antiseptically clean manner with which Sy lives his life and it adds a style and look to the film that bodes the subject matter very well. For those of you who have seen the film, whatever you feel in the end for Sy, the "anti-climax" senario of the movie was a nice change from the usual "shoot them until they dont move anymore" endings of this type of psycho-stalker movie. That in itself is a welcome change as it opens up more interesting and a more controversial perspective on his activities on screen. It leaves the film open for the viewers to make up their own mind about Sy. Sure, he is a sad and lonely character who has no life of his own and so keeps photos of his customers on a giant collage on his living room wall. Is Si though, just some sad weirdo loser or is he more than that? In an increasingly morally-decaying society where people gratuitously abuse their positions of power, sacrifice the stability and happiness of their family and are adulterous etc, Sy could be seen as one of the few harbingers of morality left on the planet. He is seen though, primarily, as a mentally unstable, even potentially violent loner, who has an unrealistically idealistic view of family life. As Sy says "we only take photos of happy memories" and its these very same "happy memories" that Si doesn't have and so he absorbs as much as he can from the photos that he dotes over day after day.
Overall, One Hour photo is a thought provoking film that tries to be different from the usual film in this genre. Add to that, a well nuanced performance by Robin Williams a good supporting cast and an absorbing screenplay and stylish direction by newbie video director Mark Romanek and you have a nicely crafted thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seats to the very end.

I had been meaning to see this film for a while, being a big fan of Cuaron's other films (A LITTLE PRINCESS and Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) and one of the legion Potterites anxiously awaiting THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. I finally got around to it tonight, and I have to say I found it rather frustrating. There's a wondrous masterpiece struggling to break free from this troubled film, and it's always upsetting when so many great moments don't add up to what they should.

I should say at the start that I have not read Great Expectations, nor have I seen any other adaptation of it (not even Lean's, though it's on my list). I started this film knowing very little about the story, being familiar only with notion that it was a love story with an artist for a protagonist, and being also quite familiar with Patrick Doyle's quirky but often strikingly beautiful score.

Where to begin? The acting. Performances are wonderful from all around. Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow are two actors I've never been very certain of. Paltrow seems to give her best performances when she's pretending to be English, and Ethan Hawke, though always good, is always Ethan Hawke. Here he does a great job. With the slightest turn of his cheek he can convey infinite sadness but is equally natural when he turns conceited, and does great work also when he's pouring his heart out. Only in his narration does he ever become bothersome, where he sounds like he's reading a story rather than reflecting back as his character. But these portions never last long, and never get in the way.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a wonderful tease in the beginning. Her character demands admiration and control, and like Finn you can't help but fall in love with her even when you realize she's using you. Paltrow is less convincing when her character finally has to show some emotion, but I think this may be more of a storytelling flaw than a weakness in her performance.

DeNiro and Bancroft are both great. Bancroft's character is nuts, but she plays it with remarkable grace and class. DeNiro doesn't have much screen time but makes his character very memorable. Hank Azaria is quite good as Paltrow's befuddled sweetheart, a man who is holding in a lot of love and anger and always seems ready to burst at any time, though he never does. This is the first time I've seen Azaria in a dramatic role, and I was rather surprised at his subtlety and skill. I hope audiences get more chances to see this side of him in the future. Chris Cooper is (as you would expect) superb as Finn's caretaker. Sure, he's once again playing the simple southerner with a golden heart--perhaps having him play DeNiro's part would have been a more inspired choice--but he's so good it's impossible to fault him for anything. When he comes trying to nudge his way back into Finn's life in a scene halfway through the film, the result is truly heartbreaking, and it's all Cooper's show. That Oscar of his was long overdue.

The sound design is quite good. Though the music is sometimes questionable (more on that a bit later) the arrangement of the music and the sound effects is wonderful. I don't have surround sound, but I was listening through a really good pair of headphones so I got the general idea. One particularly good scene takes place at a high-class party (this is where Doyle's fabulous aria "I Saw No Shadow" is featured).

Emmanuel Lubezki's photography is, as always, spectacular. This is one of the elements of AZKABAN I'm looking forward to the most. There are many interesting locations used in the film, and Lubezki takes full advantage of each one with impeccable lighting and simply gorgeous composition.

This is often referred to as a modernization of Dicken's tale, but I don't really see it that way. While the setting does become more conventional when Finn goes to New York, before he gets there this film takes place in a reality all it's own. This bodes well for the next Potter film. Cuaron fashions a world that is fantastic but grounded in reality, where you always feel as if you're living a dream or a fantasy.

There are some marvelous scenes in this film. The most memorable is a beautifully directed scene in which Finn runs through the streets of New York in the rain searching for Estella (those of you who own the score can probably guess how the scene ends). Another is when a drunken Finn comes to Estella's window to spill all his feelings. Both scenes feature marvelous music by Patrick Doyle. There's another (this one uses a rock song to great effect) of Finn drawing portrait after portrait of Estella, a scene which manages to be much more erotic than the portrait-drawing scene in TITANIC even though you don't see half as much of Gwyneth as you saw of Kate. It's moments like these that show you just how great a film this should be.

The major problem, as it seems with many Dickens adaptations, is that everything happens too fast. You barely get to know a character before some event causes a drastic change in who they are. There's simply too much story to tell in the two hours Cuaron takes to tell it. As excellent as every scene is on its own, many scenes often feel like parts of different films, especially in the first and third acts, where the biggest leaps in time take place.

The music in this film is also damaging to it's overall effect. Both the song selection and the score (beautiful as it is) are all over the map, combining jazz, rock, classical, pop, even Latin music for a soundtrack which, like the film itself, never feels like a whole. Each individual scene with music uses the music to tremendous effect. From the running through the rain scene, to Doyle's aria, to the rock song which is wonderfully fitted to the portrait-drawing, the music in every individual scene is perfect. But the music simply lacks a cohesive voice for the film, which is really a shame since a more cohesive soundtrack might have helped the cohesion of the film itself a great deal.

I wonder whether this is how the film was scripted or whether there's a good deal more material that was eventually cut out. I hope there were many scenes cut from the final version, because it leaves room for the possibilty that Cuaron could put together a longer and possibly more satisfying cut some day. As it stands, this is a beautiful, passionate and ultimately flawed film that still comes highly recommended for its merits. If such a thing is possible, I'm looking forward to PRISONER OF AZKABAN even more.

Kirk
NP - Misere paraphrase (Michael Nyman)

I consider the FOTR to be a seemless masterpiece, not an unnecessary minute... everything fits and flows. Can't say that for TTT; it's hard to believe these 2 movies were filmed at the same time. I would have left approx 30 mins on the editing floor, which might help. And perhaps add some to fill out the more important/interesting parts. It's almost as if Ron Howard had a hand in this one.

Gae