Before I begin, I should mention that I have been an Alfred Hitchcock fan since the age of five, and for me to even compare any film made in the last twenty years to even the worst Hitchcock film is totally unheard of. I view hitchcock as most film buffs view Orson Welles. With that being said, I left the movie theater after viewing One Hour Photo utterly spellbound. The same uneasy (not necessarily nervous) feeling that one experiences during a film like Notorious or North By Northwest can be experienced here. The audience isn't scared of Williams' character, they're uncomfortable around him, which is just how the other characters in the film view him. The other great element of the film is that it is easy to follow. While the trend in the mystery / thriller genre of today is to confuse and disorientate the audience as a means of creating tension, the director takes down a straight road that has several bumps along the way, which provides the same tension without all the confusion (See this film, then watch either Memento or Mulholland Drive). I can go on and on, but I will leave you with the this as a close to this review. This is the first film in some years that I left the movie theater feeling that I really got my money's worth ($8.00 per ticket).
Review of One Hour Photo
