8 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 16, 2002 ARTS Romanek extracts chilling performance from Williams in 'Photo' By Luke Smith Daily Arts Editor Inside the washed-out Savmart, Seymour "Sy" Par- rish has taken the development of high quality, snappy photos in an hour of less to an exact science. The pic- tures he gives you will be crisp, even if they aren't the size you asked for. He greets your children with an unnerving predatory smile and offers them free cameras when it's their birthdays. At first glance, Sy the photo guy is the perfect employee: Hard-working, devoted to the understanding of his customers, he even goes as far as memorizing his favorite customers' addresses. Beneath Sy's bleached, broken appearance and care- fully calculating demeanor lies an individual with a dark obsession. A giant wall of pictures hangs on the wall in his apartment, which is colored in flattened, bleak colors, much like Parrish's existence. The pictures most notably the caustic video for "Closer." Romanek carefully makes "One Hour Photo" a collection of snapshots, brought together through excellent art direction and use of color. The visual contrasts between Sy Parrish and the Yorkins is evident in the deep devotion to set construc- tion. Parrish's home is empty and antiseptic. Aside from his wall of Yorkin, the home feels more like a hospital waiting room than it does an apartment. The interior is fabulously colored in whites and greys, flat- tened and empty. Masterfully foiling Parrish's apartment is the lavish, home of the Yorkins. The barren walls of Sy's apart- ments are countered are countered by walls chocked full of pictures, trinkets and gadgets. The colors are alive in the Yorkin household as opposed to the dead coloring of Parrish's life. The Yorkins are the picture of the life that Sy Parrish wants and can't have. on the wall are meticulously cataloged and document his favorite customers, the Yorkins. Sy Parrish lives on the periphery of their upper-middle class existence, and he lives there alone. Robin Williams' depiction of the neu- rotic Sy Parrish is disarming. Williams' voice-overs offer haunting fragments like "according to the Oxford English diction- ary snapshot was originally a hunting ONE HO PHOT At State Th Fox Searchl Parrish's desperate attempts to be a Yorkin extend as far as offering Jakob a camera on his birthday. He superficially attempts to ingrain himself into the Yorkin household, whether it be through watch- )UR ing Jakob's baseball practice, or reading p the same book as Nina. In his fantasy world, he sits in the perfect Yorkin home, eater watching television, he eats their food, ight drinks their beer, uses their restroom - he is Uncle Sy Parrish. When Sy discovers (through the pictures he devel- term." Williams is guided deep into the obsessively dark Sy Parrish, never breaking character. Sy Parrish's subjects and prey, the Yorkins, live a very normal life. Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen, "Glad- iator") plays the part of the soccer-mom perfectly. She is well-kept and well-maintained, just like the home she keeps. Her husband Will, (Michael Vartan, TV's "Alias") works all of the time, generating income for his family's comfortable life. Their son, Jakob (Dylan Smith) is as cute as he is innocent - Jakob sad early in the film, wonders if Sy the photo guy has friends and people who love him. Mark Romanek, both penned and directed "One Hour Photo" a different genre altogether than his pre- vious body of work. Before "One Hour Photo," Mark Romanek had primarily been a music video director, handling clips for Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, ops) that the Yorkin family isn't as perfect as he believes, he is crushed. The blow he feels damages him as much or more so than the family itself. The pedestal Parrish put the Yorkins on is shattered in a handful of photos. After this dramatic realization, Parrish comes undone and takes matters into his own hands. He is infuriated that his ideal family has been broken, and here the fragility of Williams' Parrish, much alluded to throughout the film's ice-cold voice-work, boils over. Romanek's "One Hour Photo" is a beautiful piece of film. It is edited masterfully, the coloring and visuals appropriately lie at the center of this, a movie essen- tially about images. However, it is unfortunate that Romanek's writing isn't as rock-steady as the rest of Courtesy of Fox Searchlight A dejected Robin Williams. the film. During film's climax, (the better part of the last half-hour) Romanek's pacing is masterful, and enhanced by Robin Williams' ability to be truly fright- ening, in far more than a creepy Savmart kind-of-way. This climactic build of frenzied intensity is under- mined completely by the film's transformation of Sy Parrish from a neurotically obsessive individual into someone with a psychosis. Through his writing, Romanek failed to realize that the scariest part about Parrish was his unfettering normality. The establish- ment of Parrish's psychosis in the film's final scene detracts from much of the created suspense, offering an all-too-easy answer to Parrish's fragile condition. "One Hour Photo" is similar to Shyamalan's "Signs" in their respective conclusions, because both films take the easy way out, neatly packaging their endings so viewers can leave.the theater feeling closure. With a mainstream major motion picture like "Signs" this end is to be expected, but "One Hour Photo," being an independent film showing in very few theaters, and shouldn't feel the need to wrap itself up so tightly, or concisely. The intensity that Romanek built so well for 90 minutes is destroyed in the final scene. 4%-OOVER CENTER Massage & Skin Care Therapies Call For Appointment 734.994.0293 Just Off Packard. One Light South of Stadium. 'BARBERSHOP' Continued from Page 5A The principle characters come to rep- resent every facet of the life in this part of the city: The youth, the elderly, the felon, the college student, the foreigner from West Africa and the other "for- eigner" - the white man. In other words, this barbershop is a virtual melt- ing pot of conflict and personality. In a film that chooses to focus on a single location, it becomes very impor- tant that the dialogue be quite strong and retain the audience's interest. This film succeeds in doing this and then goes a step further. Social commentary and serious African-American issues are weaved throughout the casual and hilari- ous banter of these men. The dialogue in this film is brilliant, and all of the actors give amazing performances that will make you laugh and ponder. The plot of the film is a bit pre- dictable. However, this is not the primary focus of this film. The film's focus is on relationships. Ice Cube delivers his best perform- ance since his work in "Friday." Second to Cube is Cedric Kyles a.k.a. Cedric the Entertainer, who plays the aged charac- ter Eddie. I cannot stress enough how hilarious Eddie is in this film. The list of newcomers to the screen runs deep, but they certainly don't show any signs of inexperience. "Barbershop" is unexpectedly unique and special. This film seemed to come out of nowhere, but it is defi- nitely going somewhere. DAIy ARTS THIS WEEK, WE'LL SEE A MOVIE A MONTH EARLY AND HAVE THE NEW BECK CD IN HAND - AGAIN, EARLY. THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM AND THE FREE SWAG. COME FLY WITH US. Student 0 Facials Also available: Waxing, Hair Removal, and Massage. Clean - Cleanse . Clear I! A Your decision to join McKinsey & Company is a first step on the road of escalating opportunity. We supply an extraordinary range of options that form the building block of your professional life - but you take the lead. With each project you take on, you'll be challenged and stretched. You'll apply your intellect to solving the most complex and stimulating issues of the moment. But we won't expect you to have all the answers. We will actively encourage, support and develop you, which is why so many go on to achieve so much with us. Your work at McKinsey & Company will give you the experience to help you realize your most ambitious goals. Undergraduates and all others interested in the Business Analyst Program, please join us for our corporate presentation on: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 6:30 PM in the Chesebrough Auditorium in Chrysler Center on North Campus. For further information, please contact: Erica Phone: Christenson 888-202-5006 IV i AM