The Final Cut

Lately, Robin Williams has turned his skills to art movies. Now these films are not getting huge reviews, but they are beautiful to watch. One Hour Photo was simply brilliant in its use of color (or lack thereof) to show the life and inner feelings of a strange, quiet, and creepy photo shop technician. Robin’s latest contribution to this type of film is no less dramatic. The Final Cut is a movie that many will hate, but it is a brilliant film that works on many levels nonetheless.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The movie is set in the near future where a technology called a “Zo?hip” can be placed in your brain at birth to record your entire life. When you die, the footage from your life is edited down by a ?cutter? into a montage video called a “Rememory”. This is a film shown to your loved ones at your funeral, and is suppose to encompass the persons life. Because of this evolving technology, the chips are changing the face of human interaction. Think about it: If you knew that your life was being recorded for someone to watch later, what would you be doing different? Not everyone thinks this new technology is a good thing and there are those who believe that memories are personal things that are meant to fade with time. These Zo?hips capture everything that you do during your entire life. The good, the bad, and even downright evil things are all available to the cutters in order to create the final Rememory.

Enter Robin Williams who plays Alan Hackman, the best “cutter” in the business. He is a high profile cutter that has earned a reputation of being able to grant his corrupt clients absolution from the sins of their less-than-respectable lives. Because of this, he is in high demand. However, he is also a distant and troubled man that lives life with about as much emotion as a thumbtack. Because he lives inside other peoples memory chips most of the time, he has turned into a cold, distant soul unable to personally experience anything in his own life. His entertainment is escaping into other peoples lives through the Zo?hip. All that aside, he soon gets a job cutting a Rememory for a high-powered client when Alan discovers an image from his childhood that has haunted him his entire life. He has a memory of watching a childhood friend fall to his death, and he harbors great guilt over this past event. However, the boy now seems to be a man, making him wonder if he truly remembered the event correctly, and drives him on a search to find the truth.

I should mention at this point that cutters are not allowed to have Zo?hips, because they work with other people’s memories and it is unethical to record someone else’s life. And while I will not tell you the twist ending, that hint should give you a clue.

I recommend this film, although it is not an action flick in the slightest. The pace is slow, and several times I got ahead of the plot unfolding on the screen. Still, it is one of those movies that would make for a great Sunday afternoon. I love films that make you think and that tackle issues of ?what if?. This movie does a great job of making you think twice about the way you live your life and what it would be like if Big Brother was not secretly out there watching you in the night, but was living inside your own head.

Director: Omar Naim
Written by: Omar Naim
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: October 15, 2004