The Safe House - Expositions

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Imagine cross-country skiing and passing Robin Williams -- not the wacky comedian audiences love, but a lonely guy gliding along quietly atop the white snow. It would be sort of odd, but it could happen.

Williams new film, ``One Hour Photo,'' an eerie drama about one man's obsession with another man's family, premiered here at the Sundance Film Festival this week. And, despite a comic routine after the debut that had audiences howling, the film's director said that's not what makes Williams tick in the film.

``The reason he's so good is that you might be seeing glimpses of the real Robin Williams in Sy Parrish (his character),'' said writer/director Mark Romanek. ``I'm not saying Robin is a psychotic stalker, but you are seeing some of the more thoughtful, isolated side of him.''

Since hitting it big as an alien in 1970's TV comedy ``Mork and Mindy,'' Williams, 50, has steadily built a career as a dramatic actor in films like ``Good Will Hunting.'' Audiences know of his acting range, but perhaps for the first time in ''One Hour Photo,'' they see his more personal, lonely side.

``One guy said, 'is this your childhood,' and I said, 'no, I used voices as a child, but I didn't hear them,''' alluding to Sy's mental illness. That, of course, is the comic Williams.

He turns serious when talking about middle-aged Sy Parrish who runs the photo lab inside a large retail store like a Wal-Mart or Kmart. Sy has no family of his own, so he leads a fantasy life as ``Uncle Sy,'' a member of the Yorkin family whom he thinks he knows after years of developing their photos.

``I was an only child. I did have kind of like a lonely existence. The idea of being a character who is kind of isolated, I can relate to that,'' he told Reuters.

``I'm still, in a way, drawn to loner activities like cross-country skiing or long-distance bike racing. Those aren't group activities. I am a loner on that level ... Maybe that's part of Sy, that kind of withdrawn part,'' he added.

But Sy's withdrawal from society and obsession with the Yorkins leads to his eventual stalking of the family. And when things go seriously wrong in the Yorkins life, ``Uncle Sy'' believes he has to take action to rectify the problem.

The movie is not so much driven by a mysterious plot with twists and turns, although there are plenty of those.

CHARACTER STUDY IN LONELINESS

Williams calls it ``basically a psychological portrait,'' and Romanek prefers not to discuss what it's about because of all the ``little surprises that I don't want to give away.''

Keeping with the offbeat style of moviemaking that defines independent film -- Sundance is the United States' top festival for independent filmmakers held each year in this mountain town east of Salt Lake City -- ``One Hour Photo'' is a visual film, set mostly within Sy's cleaned and polished retail store.

Romanek, who made a career as a music video director for the likes of Madonna and Nine Inch Nails, said he purposely set camera shots to appear as if they were framed like photos in order to instill the idea that Sy's life is built on images he develops and not on reality.

Because of its heightened visual sense, Williams describes the film as a sort of ``double-bill'' of style and story.

``Half of it is the visuals, he said. ``It's all about what Sy sees, his fixations, his fantasies.''

The other half is his portrayal of Sy, whose lonely life slips into a madness that has dangerous consequences for all the people around him. While Williams does admit to being lonely at times, he's quick to point out that there is not ``some deep-seated psychological part of me'' bordering on madness.

Zaniness? That's a different story.

``Yeah, there is this kind of extravagant performer, which is great. But there is the other part, that's very quiet. People wonder, 'is something wrong?' Not at all. It is, more, kind of withdrawn.''

Still, after seeing him as the quiet but sinister Sy in ''One Hour Photo,'' bike riders or cross-country skiers who see him on the trails, perhaps should just pass on by.

Thanks to vartanetc.!

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