One Hour Photo 2002

I first saw this movie like 15 years ago. I’m fairly sure it was back when video rental places started selling VHS tapes for really cheap, and this happened to be one my significant other at the time and me picked out when probably grabbing several at a time. I was curious to have a re-watch now since the film stuck with me pretty strongly to have only seen it the once (I’m pretty sure.) I normally don’t remember the details of a movie within just a single year as well as I did this one without having seen it multiple times.

I remembered that the photo guy was obsessed with a family and had some of their family photos in his home, that he discovered the husband of said family was having an affair via some photos, and that he went after the cheating scumbags. What I didn’t remember was exactly what he did to them. I also surprised myself by remembering pretty clearly that when Sy began to follow the wife after she picked up the set of photos that included proof of her husband’s infidelity, she was going to swerve in the road before pulling over.

Personally, I find this film to be a bit of a masterpiece that went over a lot of people’s heads. Many describe this movie and Sy’s character as “creepy” and while I do get that, it just doesn’t hit that mark with me. Because this movie isn’t about some bad guy that gets caught being bad. It’s about the other side of a nightmarish story you might hear briefly about on the news. For me, there’s something about Sy that I can really connect with. I feel I’ve been able to relate to intense loneliness many times in my life. His core character seems so naturally and genuinely gentle and kindhearted. But even the kindest people have their breaking points. He was shown to have zero social support in his life, and that shit’s mandatory to get through.

Now, absolutely, it would no doubt be creepy to be on the receiving end of finding out that someone you don’t even know that well has been collecting your photos in such a way. In reality though, it wasn’t actually harming anyone. Sy had no ill will towards them. While it can certainly come across as weird to plaster a wall of your home in photos of someone else’s family, it wasn’t all that weird for him to daydream about being a part of their life. People daydream about the things they want to be a part of all the time. He longed to be part of a loving and functional family, and when he found out that the husband treated that precious gift like trash the perfect illusion that he had spent years building was broken for him. The husband shattered the one thing that was bringing joy to Sy’s empty existence.

Cheating angers me so much personally that it was hard for me to feel sorry for the couple that did so. I feel that Sy’s anger was justified, but I don’t actually know whether or not to say his actions were. I suppose those actions were wrong, but if they were, then why do I find it so difficult to even feel a need to forgive Sy for what he did to them? It becomes this complexity of asking what wrong really is, and the gray areas that surround it all. Wrong still being wrong, but also being completely understandable. And what about acceptable? Did the couple deserve what happened to them? Maybe? Maybe I’m actually after the answer to a different question. What else might have impacted them strongly enough to jolt them out of their stupidity? Cause that had to be a hell of a wake up call. Also, yes; if it’s not clear, I do firmly, 100 percent, believe that they deserved something especially shitty for being so shitty.

It’s not even until the end of the film that you discover Sy had suffered a traumatic childhood and the unhealthy aspects of his behaviors make more sense. I just can’t view him as a bad guy. I cannot view him as creepy or as cruel. Cheating is cruel. Cheating is one of the cruelest things you can do to another human being. What Sy was doing was ultimately harming no one. What they were doing was.

Sy didn’t deserve what happened to him in his past. Sy didn’t seem like the type of person who deserved a life of solitude. He seemed like he deserved a beautiful family life and those pictures were a way for him to without actually having it. Does that make it okay that he was taking those photos home with him? No, I suppose not. Him being so alone wasn’t necessarily his fault or anyone else’s. What happened to him as a child possibly affected him in such a way that he ended up as he was, but also to an extent we are responsible for the paths we decide to take. Whose to really say though? Who are we to assign blame and decide what’s possible or not for an individual? We all experience life differently and some of us can handle what others can’t. He did find himself a spark of happiness, but it wasn’t exactly ideal and it lead to illegalities, anger, and then violence. I wonder though, did he save a dying marriage through that violence? Or did he at least convince one or more people to re-evaluate their poor life choices? Did he do that and also set himself on a practical path to receive mental health help that he may have needed even before these events shifted into something sinister?

Okay, yes. There were the pictures of the little girl that Sy took to scare his boss. That was definitely over the line. I think it had more to do with sticking it to the man over being fired more than it had to do with him seriously considering hurting a child. I think in his already angry state that his load became too much to bear and his response to that stress came out in a very inappropriate action.

A very valid question in all of this: If Sy had been printing extras of this family for all those years; from pregnancy through to the boy’s 9th birthday, why hadn’t it ever been noticed before then?

I also have to point out an un-masterfully done scene in this that I call a masterpiece. I found it so poorly done when the married couple argued in the kitchen. It was not at all a natural sounding conversation. I feel like it must have been quickly and haphazardly thrown together as potentially unnecessary exposition about the fact that their marriage wasn’t all rainbows and sweet kittens.

One more thing then; we can’t forget the bloody eyes scene. I’m very much not into gore type horror and scares meant for pure shock value, but I actually think this paired well with the heightened emotions of what was going on, both in the movie and what was stirring inside of him.