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Plot Summary
Seymour
Parrish (Robin Williams) is known as “Sy the photo guy”. He works at
the photo developing service at the Savmart store. A bit of a loner, Sy is
obsessive about the quality of his work. He takes a special interest in
one of the store’s customers, Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen) who has been
getting her family’s photos processed at the store for years. Sy has
seen so many of their photos he feels like he knows the family intimately
and says that he feels like “Uncle Sy”. Is he just a lonely friendly
photo guy or is there something more sinister…
Review
The idea is good but this slow
moving movie doesn’t have half the suspense or tension that it could
have had. The movie plods along and it is all too obvious from the start
were the story is going. The plot is very singular with no padding or
depth and this makes it very drawn out for a feature length movie. The
pace picks up towards the end but at this stage all suspense, mystery or
tension is lost and the ending is a bit of an anti-climax.
Whatever viewing value is in
the movie is provided by Robin Williams. What has happened to him?
Where’s the cuddly comic with the big grin? First Williams was the bad
guy in Insomnia
now he's the creepy photo guy! Robin Williams’ performance was the best
thing in the film. He totally transformed himself and has shown a new side
to his acting talents. His character is obsessive and meticulous, awkward
with other people and distant. Williams portrayed these traits in a calm
controlled way that makes the character realistic and genuinely creepy.
I didn’t think that there was
enough time given to the rest of the characters, in particular the Yorkins
(Connie Nielsen and Michael Vartan). The characters are under developed
and it’s hard to like or dislike them or to find any empathy with them.
Perhaps too much time was spent on the Sy Parrish character and the other
characters were neglected.
Overall
disappointing unless you want to see Robin Williams as you’re never seen
him before!
Reviewed by Niall Quinn,
Premier Movie Reviews
2002 |