By Robert Scucci
| Published
We all love Robin Williams for making our childhoods magical with films like Mrs. Doubtfire, Patch Adams, and, my personal favorite, his portrayal of the happy-go-lucky, bumbling blue Genie with a heart of gold from Aladdin. When I was 14 years old, I was able to witness Williams’ brilliant transformation from exuberantly animated and wholesome to menacing and calculating when he decided to branch out into the thriller genre with 2002’s One Hour Photo. Like many fans of Williams’ filmography, I was blown away by his portrayal of “Sy the Photo Guy,” a well-meaning stalker who isn’t necessarily a villain, but rather a man living in total isolation to the point where he acts incredibly out of pocket toward an unsuspecting family as a means to combat his loneliness.
What’s most impressive about Williams’ Sy the Photo Guy is how hard it is to fault him for his problematic behavior throughout One Hour Photo because he’s such a sympathetic character until he 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 evident that he doesn’t know any better.
Sy Isn’t The Hero, He’s Just The Protagonist
One Hour Photo centers on the life of Seymour “Sy” Parrish, a lonely photo technician working for the big-box retailer, SavMart. Known for his obsessive attention to detail, Sy takes great pride in his work because developing film that contains the cherished family moments of his customers is something he doesn’t take lightly. In Sy’s mind, photography immortalizes the happy moments that people don’t want to forget.
After all, when a house burns down, the first thing people try to retrieve is their collection of photos, according to Sy.
Through Sy’s narrations, he proclaims that people don’t go to other stores like Rexall or Fotek because their technicians don’t care about the craft as much as he does. Sy processes his customer’s photos as if they were his own in just an hour, and his customers love how committed he is to his job, which he considers to be a vital public service.
The Yorkin Family
Outside of his job in One Hour Photo, Sy leads an empty life, and his social awkwardness keeps him from forming any meaningful relationships. Desperately wanting to feel like he belongs, Sy latches onto the Yorkin family. Though it’s never explicitly stated, it’s obvious that Sy is in love with Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen), and he always gives her special treatment when she drops off rolls of film she needs developed.
When Nina first stops at the SavMart with her son, Jake (Dylan Smith), Sy expresses affection by gifting the boy a free camera for his birthday, which is against company policy, and one of the many awkward advances he makes toward the Yorkins.
Sy is enamored with the Yorkins because he sees them as the ideal family that he never had. However, Sy isn’t just making nice in a professional setting in One Hour Photo, which is made apparent when we get a look at his home life. Living alone in his apartment with only the company of his hamster, Sy has an entire wall of his home decorated with pictures of the Yorkins at 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 making innocent chit-chat with the Yorkins at work to following them around town in an attempt to feel some sort of human connection to a family that’s wholly indifferent to his existence for no other reason than the fact that he’s just their photo guy at the SavMart and they have a life of their own.
Sy’s loneliness is noticed by Nina when he follows her to the mall and pretends that their encounter is coincidental, and as far as she knows, it is. When 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 anybody feel bad for the guy.
Things Get Out Of Hand Quickly
Sy’s behavior in One Hour Photo becomes increasingly erratic, and he gets a little too close for comfort with the Yorkins as the film progresses. Stealing family photos (for years) is an egregious act in and of itself, but when his fantasies and outbursts start to affect his professional life, Sy eventually goes off the deep-end despite his good intentions. Watching his imagined, ideal life bleed into his reality is truly heartbreaking, even though he’s clearly in the wrong, because all Sy wants is to feel like he’s loved and appreciated for his acts of kindness.
Streaming One Hour Photo
One Hour Photo is a difficult watch because Robin Williams’ performance makes you want to see Sy the Photo Guy find happiness, but he’s too far gone to ever make you truly want to root for him. Like I said, he’s a sympathetic character until he isn’t. It’s easy to infer that his affection toward the Yorkin family is coming from a dark, lonely, and desperate place, but he crosses too many boundaries 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.
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