Haunted behind wire-frame glasses and an inexplicable orange crew cut, Robin Williams creates Sy "the photo guy" Parrish in the third of his recent, well-publicized bad-guy roles (Williams also embraced his dark side in Insomnia and Death to Smoochy earlier this year). As it turns out, the three characters aren't so much "bad guys" as "not-so-good guys," with Williams playing misunderstood but well-meaning men in each of the films. Here, he's a meticulous photo handler searching for images to overwrite the photographic memories of his traumatic childhood.

Of all his customers, Sy likes the Yorkins best: Nina, Will and little Jake. On film, they look like the ideal family, always smiling. Sy keeps an extra copy of every one of the Yorkins' prints. It never crosses his mind that the Yorkins themselves might not be content with all the pictures they've taken, that he could be holding on to memories they've since let go. This one makes Mommy look silly -- rip! -- another memory forgotten. Sy keeps them all, wallpapering his empty apartment with visions of a better life... until an errant roll of film ruptures his fantasy and sends him into a vengeful fury.

One Hour Photo offers Williams a whopper of a character, to which the manic Oscar-winning actor responds with remarkable restraint. Inarticulate and soft-spoken, Sy Parrish remains an enigma, hidden behind occasional facial tics and a wounded smile. Meanwhile, Romanek focuses on the under-exposed details of everyday life -- the squeak of sneakers on linoleum, Muzak playing cheerlessly over tinny store speakers. We'll never understand the dimensions of Sy's personal purgatory, though Romanek captures his surroundings so completely you can almost smell the photo-processing chemicals in the air.

[as featured on Moviefone.com]