almost a mini poll.
did you feel Sympathy for Sy, or did you feel no sympathy at all?
i felt some sympathy for Sy, especially for his lonliness, but i also feel he went too far.
just post your opinion on here.
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who ate all the crunchy cream pies?
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No, but even less for Will.
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"If I've never seen it before, it's a new release to me."
I felt sympathy for him, because I come from a psychiatrist's standpoint.
He was a very lonely man, psychologically disturbed, with an extremely bad past. He probably kept a lot of bad emotions inside. He never told a soul about what happened to him. All that he did was a huge cry out for help. His obsession with the family was just an obsession to live in a perfect family of his own. When Sy goes to the hotel room, and he makes sure that Maya and Will do everything that he wants, you can kind of see that craving of control that he has. He's never had any sort of control in his life (well, he did, but he thought he didn't). A lot of bad things happened to him, and in the end, he finally confesses that he was molested when he was a kid. From what I think, he was a very lonely man desperately wanting love, help, and companionship.
So, I feel bad for him in that sense. However, he did very bad things and he was held accountable for that. He just needed a lot of psychiatric care afterwards. :)
Yes, a bit. However, I wasn't particularly sympathetic to any of the characters.
shareA little but it occurred to while watching this that so many movies portray people that were sexually abused as children as deranged psychopaths. That isn't always the case and I hope all people don't think that.
shareI felt sorry for him. I don't think any good person should have to spend his/her entire life feeling lonely. I think we all feel lonely at times, but it seemed Sy's loneliness was a life-long thing.
He didn't hurt anybody. This "he did very bad things" is just crap. I think the husband deserved what happened to him at the end. Too fu^kin' bad for him. Sy's collection of the pictures, and his going through them at work was wrong though. He invaded the family's privacy there.
Yes very sympathtic,
Robin Williams did a wonderful job with this character
Yes I did for all the reasons listed above.
His Obsession with the family was creepy but he held no malice agaisnt them did not want to hurt them at all in any way, he just wanted to be part of their happiness which is understandable.
Even when he made the husband pose and stuff I think in his own twisted way he thought he was doing a good thing...
You'd have to be extremely cold-hearted not to feel any sympathy for the mistreated man. I was beside myself at some points in the movie - the scene where he lost his job and began to shed a few tears almost did the same thing to me.
Brilliant movie and sensational performance from Robin Williams - there are many people in the world who suffer the same lonliness as Sy does in the movie, and unfortunately more often than not their lives end in suicide. It is one of the most serious and under-rated problems in the world today, and in my belief more time and effort should be put into rectifying the problem.
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It doesn't help that just about every psycho being tried for murder JUST LOOOOVESSS to claim abuse....u r rite, it's DEFINATELY gives people a skewed impression
shareYeah, a lot of shrinks always presume that a person who chose to commit horrible crimes MUST have been abused and it's not his fault. That's what it's about, taking the fault away from the person.
Y'know, I could eat a peach for hours
I felt sympathy towards him. I know what it's like to be extremely lonely and isolated. I was not sexually abused as a child but all my life I have been emotionally neglected by my family and bullied by outsiders. Like Sy, I have many times projected myself into other people's lives in my mind. People like... Robin Williams. But seeing this film has shown me how dangerous that can be. I can't go down that road. And I'm very glad I realize that now, unlike Sy, who spent his life like that because no one reached out to him. Since I saw this film, I'm the one trying to reach first.
Robin Williams is one of the most effective actors ever. He really makes you feel what he's feeling. But like I said, I'm gonna try not to get too nuts about him!
I did very much so. In a lot of movies I tend to feel sorry for the lonely person who has no one. The part where he imagines himself with them at christmas makes me feel so bad. I think he did have good intentions but didn't know exactly how to handle the situation he worked his way into. A little off topic but what he says at the end about people doing that terrible stuff to children always gets me.
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Yes, I did. As many others here have said, I sympathise with his loneliness. Isolation can drive people to the brink sometimes, particularly if they have a painful past.
shareThe christmas fantasy scene really made me feel a deep sadness for Sy as I imagine he has spent every single Christmas alone in his apartment and has probably never received a christmas card or present in many, many years... If ever once we find out how monsterous his father was.
shareyeah i definately felt some sympathy for Sy.. i mean how can you not,, he worked all those years at the same place, and then to get the Ax.. poor guy
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite
Yeah, he was a sad, sad man. People slip through the cracks, it happens all the time.
share
I felt sorry for his sad life but come on...
He lost his job because he was stealing from the company he worked for.
He invaded the families privacy.
He befriended (read "used") a child as a way of trying to worm his way into their family unit.
He passively threatened the life of his bosses daughter with the photo series and put both the boss and his wife through undeserved and unimaginable angst.
He made sure the wife found out about the husbands affair by putting the photos in the kids envelope of photos !! Way to both damage the kids relationship with his father AND make him feel responsible for his mother's sadness because he was the one who showed it to her.
He made himself judge, jury and executioner over the affair...kidnapping, threatening them with a knife, smashing the door on her face, degrading them...
yeah, poor Sy
I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.
I think a lot of us can feel sympathy with Sy. First of all, he lead a very lonely, isolated life. Second of all, he was abused as a child; that makes his character more understandable. Finally, have you ever fantasized about being in a relationship with that girl (or guy) that you can never have? That is similar to Sy's situation. The only difference is that most of us don't take it as far as he did. He is warped, but he presents more of a deeply flawed character than an evil one.
Jason
Honestly I'm a bit conflicted. At first I empathized with Robin William's character but after I saw the wall with all the pictures....I dunno. It's one thing to want to be in someone's life but to snake and push and plan to INVADE it is completely different. And the part where he lost his job was hard because you realize it was all he had but it was by his GROSS missappropriation of company property. He may have been abused but for 40 sumthin years not telling anyone, seeking therapy or even finding a hobby....he inevitably set himself up for failure.
" Losers spell it 'Looser' "
I agree with rosadorico. I felt sympathy for Sy, as you could almost feel his loneliness and how long he'd been lonely. And you could almost forgive him taking copies of the photos (even though that is a blatant invasion of privacy PLUS theft from his company), but he did more than just take photos.
He wormed his way into their lives in ways he shouldn't have, like sitting outside their house and putting others' photos into their envelopes.
Granted, Will got exactly what he deserved but Sy had no business getting involved in any of that...least of all getting angry when Nina didn't *react* the way Sy thought she should have to the photos.
This film did an excellent job in portraying the characters, as you find yourself feeling sympathy for characters you never thought you would.
He may have been abused but for 40 sumthin years not telling anyone, seeking therapy or even finding a hobby....he inevitably set himself up for failure.
I absolutely felt sympathy!
Margie
I feel sympathy for Sy himself at the beginning, when it shows his lonely, empty life outside of his work, and how he uses his job as photo technician to peer into the lives of other people.
That said, my sympathy only goes so far, because Sy went beyond them - he became an obsessive stalker who stole copies of photos (and he was obviously doing this for a long time, considering the size of his collection), and approached the family outside of his job when they didn't want to engage.
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