Written and Directed by Mark Romanek

Robin Williams, Connie Neilsen, Michael Vartan, Dylan Smith, Gary Cole, Eriq LaSalle, Clark Gregg.

The Yorkin family, with wife and mother Nina (Neilsen), her large business owner husband Will (Vartan), and nine year old son Jake (Smith), have always shopped at the local SavMart. They get many photos developed by the always happy Sy (Williams). What they don’t know, is that Sy desires to be part of their lives, even calling himself ‘Uncle Sy’. Soon his desire, turns to obsession – and he begins stalking them from afar.

This was Williams third ‘antagonist’ role he did in 2002, and quite possibly his best. I’ve previously reviewed Insomnia and Death to Smoochy, and while the former was a pretty decent performance – it was his lack of screen time that really hurt it. Smoochy was by far one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, so the less said about that the better. Here, he is the lead role.

The direction by Romanek is beautifully done, with great use of camera angles, tracking shots and colours. The ‘white’ and almost pristinely clean SavMart store, is heavenlike – despite the ‘hell’ Sy is going through. There are some moments where Sy is in the dark room illuminated in red, which is clearly a metaphor for this.

The supporting cast are just okay, with both Neilsen and Vartan fairly popular at the time due to performances in other projects in film and television.

The narration within the screenplay works well, and while some of the ‘technology’ is a bit dated over twenty years later, some of the ideology that Sy has in regards to picture taking was a bit ahead of its time.

A few moments in the film felt a bit off, or strange – such as the forced tension between Nina and Will that came out of nowhere, and is never addressed again. Also Sy is ‘fired’ but has to work the rest of the week??

This still holds up, despite the flaws, and is one of the better ‘early naughties’ films.

3.5/5

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