One Hour Photo
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 21, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Offers a very interesting snapshot of some decidedly modern pathologies. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Romanek does such a nice job of calibrating his film's squirm factor, it's possible to overlook some flaws that would sink a lesser film.
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Thriller fans might remember a terrific 1987 B flick called ''The Stepfather.'' One Hour Photo is that film, directed by an art student. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Though the writing isn't always specific, Williams is. He differentiates between the murderer in "Insomnia," who wants a cop to understand his motives, and Sy, who realizes no one ever could. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Watchable if relatively threadbare movie. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Watching the film, I thought of Michael Powell's great 1960 British thriller "Peeping Tom," which was about a photographer who killed his victims with a stiletto concealed in his camera. Sy uses a psychological stiletto, but he's the same kind of character. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
One Hour Photo is a piece of often masterly image-making, a half-brilliant film with a revelatory lead performance by Williams. But it's also a thriller that gets trapped in surfaces: shiny, exciting, full of dread but often only tricks of the camera. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
What damps down the psychological power of One Hour Photo is director Mark Romanek's reluctance to let the film become as idiosyncratically unnerving as its main character. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
In One Hour Photo, Williams is a snapshot of human complexity worth framing. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRon Wells
If this is the direction Williams is headed in his career, fantastic. For auteur Romanek, it was at least a good first try. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyRob Nelson
Like Max Cady in "Cape Fear," the prototypical prole-stalks-bourgeois thriller, Sy is employed simply to scare the family members silly and, in so doing, make them stronger. Call it an exercise in threat management. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
All too predictably, as if obeying some rule of genre, the director trades in his more involved ideas about alienation and voyeurism for an eruption of violence, then tags on some nonsense about marital fidelity. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's only near the end, when Romanek sets out to release the tremendous tension he's built up, that One Hour Photo loses its bearings. Read full review
90
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
Robin Williams just may have found the greatest role of his career. Playing beautifully both to fans and haters, Williams' Sy is a character you don't know whether to hug or go vigilante on his ass, a balance Bob Hoskins couldn't quite capture in "Felicia's Journey."
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Unlike Patch Adams, Sy is not lovable. But you wind up feeling for him, much as you feel for Sy's pet hamster on that endless wheel. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Williams once knew how to be very still and yet allow us to see the plangent human being underneath. In One Hour Photo, Sy's scary ordinariness is a species of acting stunt. There's no there there. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Williams triumphs by exceeding both in sheer actor's craft - and the depths he plumbs in his character's tortured soul. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The movie isn't as deep as it pretends to be, but it does have several nicely unexpected twists going for it. And it has Williams - memorably creepy, chillingly sad. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Ultimately well-made but only intermittently gripping.
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Williams nails it. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Williams gives a performance that is riveting in its recessiveness and, as a consequence, truly, deeply scary. Read full review
30
SalonCharles Taylor
An art-house horror movie, and like most art-house versions of genre films, all the vitality and juice of genre conventions have been sucked right out. The irony of the movie is that it puts you into the same torpor that's supposed to be afflicting the characters. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The thinking part of this thriller needs work. It's not nearly as intelligent, thoughtful or penetrating as it promises to be. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It marks an impressive debut for first-time writer-director Mark Romanek, especially considering his background is in music video. His script is uncluttered and potent, and his direction manipulates a devastating climax that ties the photo/voyeuristic theme together very effectively. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
The film is visually worked out to within an inch of its life, but after 15 minutes you can see where it's going, and along the way there are no surprises. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Has a clean, antiseptic chilliness reminiscent of a Kubrick film. But too often, the director's stark visuals underline the naked simplicity of his story and make his picture of the suburbs seem hopelessly generic. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
One Hour Photo is two-thirds of a movie -- the last act is a bit of a shambles. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Unfortunately One Hour Photo turns everyone but the central character into a cutout. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Too bad that Romanek feels compelled to tie it all up with a banal pop psych explanation that offers an all-too simplistic solution to an otherwise uncommonly complex thriller. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It is a rare performance when one of the world's most recognizable stars can disappear completely into a character on the screen. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
This immaculately made first feature from noted musicvid and commercials director Mark Romanek provides Robin Williams with one of his creepiest, atypical roles, and the comic star responds with an unusually restrained performance that is, in the end, quite moving. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Romanek's movie is a bit too pat and pleased with its undeniable ambitions, but the setup resonates with quiet desperation. There's not a single vicarious glorch. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalCollin Levey
It lacks the redeeming warmth of a character the audience can identify with. But longtime fans of Mr. Williams will enjoy it as an example of the creepiness we always knew he was capable of.
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It begins by scaring you to death by evoking a monster, and by the end it has seduced you into caring for him. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Intense and absorbing experience. Read full review
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