et in the near future, The Final Cut sets up a world where those with the means can implant a chip in their children's minds, recording every experience a person goes through in his life, which are pieced together for his memorial into a "Rememory," a film of his greatest moments. Robin Williams stars as Alan Hackman, a "cutter" whose job it is to log, arrange and edit the memories stored in the chip into the final film that defines the life of its subject.
Haunted by a memory of his own from his childhood, Hackman has made a name for himself through his ability to grant absolution to the most corrupt clients, reshaping their sins into glowing achievements. A loner and an outsider, he has few contacts with the outside world outside of the footage he watches for work—even his relationship with rare bookseller Delila (Sorvino) is tainted by his obsession.
Yet not everyone is a fan. A growing group of dissidents, led by a former cutter (Caviezel), who feel that the implants have a devastating effect on society, become increasingly interested in Hackman's latest case, a recently deceased corporate bigwig whose sins manage to make even Hackman uncomfortable. Believing that exposing the man's sins will expose the hypocrisy of Rememories, they try to steal Hackman's copy of the chip at the same time that Hackman finds a key to his past in the deceased man's memories.
Some memories are best forgotten
If The Final Cut sounds a little plot-heavy, you're not mistaken. In fact, the film could benefit immensely by having a cutter of its own. Making his feature directorial debut, 26-year-old Omar Naim is a little over-ambitious, cramming the film with a few too many plot elements, which give the film a jumbled, unfocused feel. Yet, at the same time, there is a substance to the film that you don't often find in first-time efforts.
While on the surface the film examines the role of memories in our lives and how they are affected—and sometimes influenced and/or altered—by media and technology, what Naim is really examining with The Final Cut is the relationship between film and reality. Naim, who previously directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary Grand Theater: A Tale of Beirut, keeps the analogies in the film fairly clear—Hackman is essentially a director, altering reality to create rosy pictures of, at times, the most horrific truths. For a director to examine the impact of his work in film isn't a new idea. Many filmmakers, most famously Federico Fellini, have tread this ground before, but what makes The Final Cut interesting is the fact that he sets this question in the near future, where media threatens not only to influence people's opinions but also to define them.
Robin Williams turns in another serious performance in the film, playing Hackman as only a shade more human than the stoic Sy Parrish of One Hour Photo. Meanwhile, Mira Sorvino seems totally miscast as Williams' love interest, and, frankly, her character's story is so sidelined I'm not sure why she's in the film at all. Taking a break from playing Jesus, Jim Caviezel plays a bit of a mystery man in a fake moustache and beard, while Canadian actress Mimi Kuzyk manages to steal every scene she's in.
While the film has some interesting ideas, I wouldn't recommend it to fans interested only in its sci-fi aspect, since it is mostly downplayed in the film. The futuristic setting is created mostly with suggestion, using modern settings as Michael Winterbottom did (I think to greater effect) earlier this year in Code 46.
