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Preview by Jack Foley |
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AFTER years in the sentimental wilderness, Robin Williams is most definitely back with a bang. His latest, Insomnia, in which he plays a child-killer who blackmails Al Pacino's sleep-deprived cop, opens in UK cinemas on Friday, while the forthcoming One Hour Photo (which opens on October 4) has been described by Gear Magazine as 'the most significant image overhaul since Travolta traded up from Look Who's Talking to Pulp Fiction'.
Williams stars as lonely photo technician, Sy Parrish, a seemingly friendly
worker who is loved by his customers. When events threaten to disrupt the
lives of the picture perfect family he has become obsessed with, however,
Parrish will stop at nothing to preserve the homelife he has grown to think
of as his own.
Box Office Magazine said that 'not since American Beauty has a film so effectively
skewered the American dream'.
One Hour Photo marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of veteran music
video director, Mark Romanek, an 11-year veteran of some of the most groundbreaking
music videos for artists such as Madonna, Beck, Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray,
David Bowie, REM, and Janet Jackson.
He has received numerous accolades, including more than a dozen MTV Video
Awards, two Grammys and three Billboard Music Awards.
Two of his music videos - Madonna's 'Bedtime Story' and Nine Inch Nails's
'Closer' - have become part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum
of Modern Art, while in 1997, MTV presented Romanek with the prestigious Video
Vanguard award honouring his unprecedented achievement in the art of music
video.
One Hour Photo is surrounded by talent - both in front and behind the camera.
It is produced by Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, whose joint credits
include arthouse classics Happiness, I Shot Andy Warhol, Kids and Go Fish,
along with Academy Award winner Boys Don't Cry, and by Stan Wlodkowski, who
co-produced American Beauty.
The film co-stars Connie Neilson (of Gladiator
fame), Michael Vartan (Never Been Kissed) and Eriq La Salle (formerly Dr Benton
in television's ER).
WHAT THE US CRITICS HAD TO SAY:
USA
Today was pleased to announce that the film 'takes Robin Williams to darker
and more complex places that we can't turn our eyes away from', awarding it
three and a half stars out of four, while Rolling Stone noted that 'even when
the lights of inspiration flicker in the film itself, Williams remains electrifying'.
The New York Daily News said that 'Romanek's achievement is to tailor the
look of the movie tightly to its theme', awarding it three stars out of four,
while the New York Post said that 'Williams triumphs by exceeding both in
sheer actor's craft — and the depths he plumbs in his character's tortured
soul'.
On a negative note, FilmCritic.com felt that the film 'falls short of revealing
anything intriguing about human nature', while Salon described it as 'an art-house
horror movie' which 'like most art-house versions of genre films, all the
vitality and juice of genre conventions have been sucked right out'.
However, there were very few negative comments. Entertainment Weekly awared
it a B- and said that it 'goes from being [a] slick and simple study in human
isolation to being a pulpier, and squarer, flick', while the New York Times
said that 'however underpopulated, the movie is thick with concentration'.
E! Online, however, said that this is 'a picture show worth taking in', while
Film Journal International predicted that it 'could emerge as of the more
talked-about films of the late summer'. And the final word goes to TV Guide,
which says that the film is 'smart and deeply unsettling'.
RELATED STORIES: Click here to
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