From Hook To Aladdin: Remembering Our Favorite Robin Williams Movies

One Hour Photo

In One Hour Photo, Williams plays Seymour ”Sy” Parrish, a lonely man who works at the local photo-processing centre. Each day that Sy shows up to work, he desperately hopes that a woman named Nina Yorkin will walk in to develop her family’s photos. Sy looks through every photo the Yorkins develop and forms an image in his mind that they are the perfect family. After handling their photographs for so long, he actually begins to see himself as the perfect addition to the Yorkins. What begins as smiles and chitchat between Sy and Nina slowly begins to gain weight, and forms into a strange connection that Nina could have never expected.

The performance that Robin Williams gives in One Hour Photo is unlike any we have seen before from the actor. The cheery guy from Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, and Patch Adams is nowhere to be found. Instead, Sy Parrish is the rare Williams character that audiences feel no sympathy for, and that’s kind of wonderful.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing about Williams’ performance in this film is how restrained it is. The actor was known for usually being loud and over-the-top, even in his dramatic efforts, such as Good Will Hunting. Here though, he is nothing like what we saw in the roles that made him a household name, and it’s truly a refreshing change of pace for the iconic actor that really proves he can handle both lighthearted comedic films as well as heavy dramatic turns.

– Matthew Hoffman