Robin Williams plays Sy, a photo developer at a Target/K-Mart type of store who becomes obsessed with a family whose film he has been developing for over a decade. The movie was fascinating to watch, often in its small details. It spends a lot of time looking like a photograph, and seeing itself from inside itself, if you know what I mean.
One of the most fascinating scenes was a complete throwaway. The basic premise is that Sy is this totally invisible guy. He's no one, a nebbish, and no one ever notices him. From the vantage point of his non-existence, he builds a dangerous and terrifying obsession; he uses his invisibility to stalk a family that is happily "normal," living on the other side of the invisibility divide. Gradually you can realize that we meet "Sy" all the time, and in this one, telling scene, Sy stops for dinner at a restaurant. The waitress knows him, asks after his family (whom she thinks is depicted in the photos he obsesses over), and so on. And it is there for the viewer to know that this waitress, too, is Sy. She is invisible to him, he doesn't see or notice her, but she knows him.
Unfortunately, the story goes on to depend on more and more coincidences, both of unlikely circumstance and of converged timing, rather than staying in the viewpoint of ordinariness it has created. As one thing leads to another, it looks more like a movie and less like Sy working at Sav Mart, and that weakens the movie.
Still, worth seeing. 8/10
One of the most fascinating scenes was a complete throwaway. The basic premise is that Sy is this totally invisible guy. He's no one, a nebbish, and no one ever notices him. From the vantage point of his non-existence, he builds a dangerous and terrifying obsession; he uses his invisibility to stalk a family that is happily "normal," living on the other side of the invisibility divide. Gradually you can realize that we meet "Sy" all the time, and in this one, telling scene, Sy stops for dinner at a restaurant. The waitress knows him, asks after his family (whom she thinks is depicted in the photos he obsesses over), and so on. And it is there for the viewer to know that this waitress, too, is Sy. She is invisible to him, he doesn't see or notice her, but she knows him.
Unfortunately, the story goes on to depend on more and more coincidences, both of unlikely circumstance and of converged timing, rather than staying in the viewpoint of ordinariness it has created. As one thing leads to another, it looks more like a movie and less like Sy working at Sav Mart, and that weakens the movie.
Still, worth seeing. 8/10