The Final Cut

The Final Cut Review

In FINAL CUT, director Omar Naim presents a not too distant future that features a technology that gives the film its dramatic impetus. When a child is born, his/her parents can opt for a pricey implant, called a Zoe, which fits in the child's head and will record every second of the child's life right up to the moment of death. Now this concept has a myriad of possibilities to alter society and the way that people can or dare to interact with each other. However, director Naim chooses to avoid these wider psycho-social implications to focus on a standard thriller of industrial espionage. This tightening of focus works since Naim wanted to entertain the viewer without morphing the film into a "message" medium that might have emerged as insufferably pedantic. Robin Williams is Alan Hakman, whose job is to edit or "cut" a lifetime of memories into a handy movie-length summary suitable for viewing at funerals. I was mildly surprised that no one in the movie seemed to find a use for such an implant. Each person would be an infallible lie detector. Juries would have no trouble assessing a defendant's guilt. Hakman works under enormous pressure. There are many protestors who violently oppose what he does on moral grounds. The several vignettes that show these protestors reminded me of leftists who think nothing of violating the rights of others with curses and beatings to exercise their own rights of free expression. Further, Hakman daily has to edit out the unsavory aspects of his deceased client, thus forcing him to see evil up close and personal, and then delete the offending scene only to have to go home to wrestle with his conscience. Williams portrays Hakman as a tightly wound up individual who has his own demons of memory to contend with. Mira Sorvino is his lover who cares for him but only just so far since his job erects a massive wall of social static that bars true intimacy. Jim Caveziel is a former "cutter" who tries to strongarm Hakman into giving him access to a recorded memory that if exposed will topple the entire industry of re-memorizing.

FINAL CUT uses a constant series of claustrophobic scenes that intensify the torment that is right there on the viewing screen of a recorded memory. The technology involved does not seem that far fetched, but viewer interest does not lie in that. We watch movies like FINAL CUT because it is full of quirky characters, none of whom is truly evil, but all of whom are torn in deciding what is right, not what is the path of least resistance. FINAL CUT forces us to conclude that life's precious memories must not be hawked for sale, but deserve a silent and private contemplation that has no place for a public forum. Omar Naim's The Final Cut is startlingly different than a conventional science fiction film. It's a compelling fable that offers a vision of a world where memory implants record all moments of a person's life. Post mortem, these memories are removed and edited by a "Cutter" into a reel depicting the life of the departed for a commemorative ceremony, called a Rememory. Robin Williams' powerful portrayal of Alan Hackman, a troubled "cutter," propels this character driven story that forces us to question the power of our memories and the sanctity of our privacy