So-so casting (except for Tom Noonan, always a joy to watch create an unusual character) made this film slow off the ground & I almost gave up on it early on while the titular Photographer & his girlfriend were being established as moral cretins I could not possibly be interested in.
If a character-performer like, oh, Steve Buscami had played the photographer, I could've enjoyed just watching him even in those early scenes, but Reg Rogers wasn't instantly captivating. He has to grow on you but does eventually impresses.
I stuck it out & after a half hour or so the film became Magic Realist & extremely intriguing, with the gritty streets of New York highly romanticized.
It slowly becomes clear that the awful central character will be redeemed by this bizarre night-long quest with sundry found-characters in tow. The photographer keeps running into strange people (all wonderful supporting actors) who help him in his search for the lost photographs, which depict incidents that had not yet happened until the night is done.
By the end, the Photographer & his mystical journey had come to feel like a pretty darned good mystery tale with faint supernatural undertones. For a first-time film maker, the director certainly deserves future attention if easier-to-get television work doesn't keep him from further feature direction.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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