Review: Final Cut, The (2004)
Harvey S. Karten
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Lions Gate Films
Grade: B-
Directed by: Omar Naim
Written by: Omar Naim
Cast: Robin Williams, Genevieve Buechner, Leanne Adachi,
Mira Sorvino, Stephanie Romanov, James Caviezel
Screened at: AMC Empire 25, NYC, 11/17/04
You can get the impression–depending on where you live in the
U.S.–that most people are walking around with chips on their
shoulders. That's not sci-fi, that's reality. If you want sci-fi,
imagine that some people have microchips implanted in their
brains, chips that record every thing they see and even some
things that they see only in their fantasies. You may not even
know you have the chip: it's the kind of thing your parents may
have given you at birth, but while this technology seems
designed to allow you and your loved ones to see home movies
without dragging a camera about, it is instead used after you're
dead, at your memorial service. Instead of being a helter-
skelter portrayal of different points in your life, everything that
makes you look criminal, even just bad, is deleted, so the folks
at your funeral service get a two-hour version of what one
character in Omar Naim's dark, dark, sci-fi pic, "The Final Cut,"
says can "make saints out of murderers."
"The Final Cut" is the story of a guy who has no life other than
being the best cutter in the business. He gets the chip upon the
death of a customer, runs it through a machine at break-neck
speed to show, perhaps, just the guy's graduation, wedding,
bar-mitzvah, and eliminate the person's shoplifting, affairs-on-
the-side, and drug-taking.
Sounds fine, doesn't it? Except that in the same way some pro-
Bush people demonstrate against the use of stem cells which
may provide the cure for awful diseases, people line the streets
with signs like "Live for today." Other than that, one can
scarcely see how the practice is anybody's business but the
customers'.
The object of hatred of these demonstrators is Alan Hakman
(Robin Williams), who must spend sixteen hours of each day
(plus, for all we know, eight sleeping hours dreaming of his job)
editing these so-called Zoe chips to redeem people who are
anything but saintly. Why so? Alan feels guilty about an
incident that occurred when he was ten years old: he believes
he is responsible for the death of a kid he had coaxed to walk
over a plank and who fell, presumably dead. By wiping away
the sinister parts of other people's lives, he believes he can
redeem his own.
In a project involving what is called the Rememory of a
businessman, Bannister, who was a child molester and who
was part of a team involved in some shady business dealings,
is pursued by another cutter, Fletcher (Jim Caviezel), who is out
to use a Zoe chip to expose Bannister's nefarious activities.
The concept is an original: I can think of no other sci-fi pic that
quite resembles the intriguing concept that Omar Naim, as a
debut director, affords us. There are flaws that Naim should
have anticipated, however. For example, the relationship
between Alan and the much younger Delila (Mira Sorvino) is so
without chemistry that one wonders how they ever got together
at all. The dialogue, especially of the women in the cast
especially that of the child, Isabel, is muffled–which could be the
fault of the theater.
Worst of all, just about every scene lacks light. It's one thing to
project the miserable, depressed life of Alan with eerie Philip-
Glass style music. It's another to portray almost all of the brief,
eighty-five minute film, in virtually night-time. Robin Williams
deserves more light–a guy who can act the clown ("Moscow on
the Hudson") and the tragic figure ("One Hour Photo") in much
the way that Steve Martin shows his mettle in movies of varied
genres.
Notwithstanding these flaws, some audience members could
see this film as effective political satire: is the way that Alan
pares away the corruptions of his customers similar to how
politicians and corporations show only their best sides to the
public?
Rated PG-13. 85 minutes © Harvey Karten
at harvey...@cs.com
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