The Final Cut

Plot synopsis:
In this futuristic tale, Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) witnesses the death of his childhood friend who had fallen off a plank of wood in the abandoned building in which they were playing. Flash to the present, and chips called "Zoe" are inserted into the brain at birth and record a person's entire life; when the person dies, the video is edited and shown at the funeral. Video editor ("cutter") Alan Hakman edits the recordings of people's lives according to the wishes of the subject's family, interviewing the person's family members to get an idea of what to look for in the recordings. Of course, in the case of some unscrupulous people, the bad parts are left out, but the entire recording of a person's life is therefore subject to scrutiny. So, in some cases, Hakman was knowingly burying the bad and highlighting the good. As a result, Alan is turned into a cold megalomaniac, but things change when he stumbles across a subject's memory of his friend, who he thought was dead. In searching for a record of his friend's Zoe chip, he finds none, as only 20% of all people have the implants. What he does find is a record of his own implant, of which he was unaware. He goes about accessing the memory, which shows that Alan's friend was still breathing, and the "blood" Alan thought he remembered stepping in as he was leaving the building turned out to be paint. Meantime, the Zoe chip of his subject is destroyed during a confrontation in his office. Confronted by activists who want his subject's life opened to all, Alan attempts to flee because his memory chip recorded what he saw of the subject's life, but is shot and killed by the activist, who justifies his actions, hence Alan was not killed in vain. Mira Sorvino and James Caviezel also star.

Tags: murder, flashback

Review:
Robin Williams is good as always and he tries his best to keep you interested, and the opening of the movie was promising.
As one would expect, Williams turns in an incredible performance, but the script, by writer/director Omar Naim, could have used a lot of work.The premise is fabulous.
This is all good stuff, and it's excellently played by Williams.The flow of the film is a bit odd, and especially the ending (which I praised for its relative nihilism) is eventually abrupt in a way that doesn't exactly work (and I usually love abrupt endings).
Of course Naim was faced with cutting the film to make it look good, but it's a bit awkward and arbitrary-feeling, just as a cutter's work would likely be when faced with having to produce a coherent 90-minute film out of 80 years' worth of material.
Being less generous, Naim simply needs to learn how to better tell a story, and there was no intention of real-world reflexivity with his fictional material.The Final Cut is worth seeing, especially if you're a Robin Williams fan as I am, but it's a disappointment considering what it could have been..
As a first film, Omar Naim does a credible job at directing Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, and Jim Caviziel.
Thom Bishops who I never heard of before was suprisingly impressive as the light point in the film.To me, this film comes at a time when this subject is pertinent as social commentary on where our society is headed.There was a couple of plot holes though, and I felt that the romance between Mira Sorvino's character and Robin's could have been more developed..
The plot is timely and intriguing, providing lots of food for thought as to the perhaps not-too-far future prospects of technology and our own legacies.I agree the relationship between Williams' character and his love interest was too sketchy.
You can see the huge burden of guilt the character carries.Basically, the premise of this movie is that organic implants are placed into peoples' heads which records everything they see and hear their whole life.
"The Final Cut" is a dark cross between "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "One-Hour Photo" and "Citizen Kane."While this is an original screenplay by writer/director Omar Naim, it is faithful to a Philip Dick-type imagining of a techno-world in the not-so-distant future, with the bleakness, of both the excellent production design, cinematography, music and the story, only briefly mitigated.I like how gradually we see the explanations and issues of memories from many different view points and issues, while one lives and dreams and how one lives on in other people's memories, as a multiplier effect in touching other people and our own souls.
The "cutters" -- like the Robin Williams character -- are like film editors, but your entire life is the film or tape to be edited.
That's the premise of THE FINAL CUT (TFC), a movie that raises intriguing questions about privacy, truth, and memory, but unfortunately, leaves the answers on the cutting room floor.TFC fast forwards from our post-911 world of surveillance cams and camera phones to a time when one in five people carry an organic TiVo in their brain.
Then 'cutters' convert a lifetime of memory into a movie-length 'rememory' for survivors.ROBIN WILLIAMS plays Alan Hakman (hack man, get it?).
I'm going to have to start looking out for more Canadian-made features at this rate, because their studios have shouldered their way to the forefront of the global film industry, and "The Final Cut" is a great example of what I'm talking about."The Final Cut" takes place in the indefinite future, a time when modern technology has made it possible for those who can afford it to outfit their children before birth with a device, the Zöe Implant, that creates a faithful, total, lifelong visual record of their lives, to be retrieved after their death.
(Playing Jesus Christ sure does mess with people's expectations of you - Peter O'Toole is the only actor I'm aware of who carried it off without damage to his career afterward, albeit in a very skewed way, in "The Ruling Class".) I am honestly impressed with the performance Caviezel put in for "The Final Cut," with its texture and depth, very impressive for a supporting character in a movie that's only an hour and a half long.Mira Sorvino is also good, playing a fellow Cutter - Cutters are an odd, wonkish ilk, it turns out, and she manages to create a not-hackneyed, not-stereotypical hacker character with warmth and verve.
It only took him an hour and a half to totally make his name as far as I'm concerned with "The Final Cut." It's a crisp, professional corker of a science-fiction thriller with very few slow places, lots of twists and a plot that won't let you relax until five minutes after the end credits.I can't recommend this film highly enough..
If you are interested in seeing other films like this one by Robin Williams, I will have to recommend the World According to Garp.
I was a little disappointed with the ending so that's why 9 stars rather than 10.Robin Williams gives his usual outstanding performance in this film--as we've come to expect of him.Again, Robin plays a bit of an off-center, troubled character, the type he does so well.The setting is in the very near future where some people are having implants placed in their children, before they are even born, which will record every detail of the child's life.
The implant can only be retrieved upon the death of that person.The recording is then turned over to a "cutter" who goes through the video of the person's life seeking out those precious memories the family will want to re-live and treasure forever.
The cutter does splicing, cutting and editing to create the film for the grieving relatives and friends of the deceased.Cutters, however, are not allowed to have these implants themselves.Robin Williams plays a troubled cutter who has a memory of his own that is tormenting and haunting him.
We see early in the film, Robin's character as a young boy, who during playtime with another boy his age, witnesses the other boy fall to his death.This childhood incident plays itself out in the storyline, as well as the protesters of the implant, who become dangerous to Robin.Mira Sorvino plays Robin Williams "much too young for him", girlfriend, and his occupation as a cutter also affects their relationship.The film is well done, and kept this viewer interested throughout.9 stars out of 10..
Meanwhile, Alan finds that he has also an implanted microchip, which is against the rules of a cutter.When I saw the trailer of "The Final Cut", I became anxious to see this promising sci-fi movie.
It's so incredibly absurd, nothing in it is the least bit feasible, and it's a stupid movie anyway, does Jim Caviezel's character hate or love Robin William's character, first he's trying to kill him, then he's being nice, which makes no sense.
Set in a world with memory implants, Robin Williams plays a cutter, someone with the power of final edit over people's recorded histories.
It's a flick for you to think, to get involved in the ramifications of what you see and don't.The movie is not perfect, of course, it has its flaws and little plot holes, but I find them to be minuscule (that part when Williams has got 5 minutes to dive in the memory -not giving more details in order to avoid spoilers- is somehow a bit dodgy).Yet again, I could be wrong and there's no utter motives or dilemmas behind the obvious and it's all in my head.
An interesting premise; media and its manipulations are examined, there are some interesting visuals here, and Robin Williams is believable as the "cutter" Hakman, who pieces together funeral presentations, editing the crimes and horrors that people experience in their life.It is a bit reminiscent (to anyone who reads) of F.
In a slightly vague future, Robin Williams plays a video editor named Alan, his job is assembling 1-2 hour video portraits of deceased clients whose parent's were well off enough to have had them fitted (while still in the womb) with a "Zoe" implant.
Even still, the overall sheen of the photography (likely added in post-production) was kind of drab in some spots and looked a little boring, particularly in the flashbacks and implant footage.Performance-wise, Robin Williams and Jim Caviezel do decent work as the protagonist and primary antagonist, respectively.
Plus we have Robin Williams in one of his 'serious roles' (which I prefer him as, after watching him in The Fisher Kind, The World's Greatest Dad and - the excellent One Hour Photo).Unfortunately, despite its intriguing premise, The Final Cut doesn't live up to expectations.
Not only does Robin Williams (uncharacteristically) 'phone-in' his performance, coming across as bored and uninteresting, but the film itself is about as interesting as he appears to be.Through his work as a 'cutter' (someone who splices together people's memories after they die for the benefit of their grieving relatives), he discovers some dark secrets that need to be investigated.
Robin Williams plays Alan Hakman, a cutter whose specializes in piecing together said films and who is weighed down emotionally by a tragic event from his childhood."The Final Cut" is no doubt a bold and interesting movie, but it's also a messy one too.
this is a great film but the ending was well it just ended ,it didn't really have an ending ,it needed another 45minutes to have a conclusion and to show what happens after the so called ending.this was robin williams best performance ,he plays the "serious" part very wellthe beginning of the film is very nice but the rest of the film doesn't keep with that pace but i liked the pace of the film and the storyline was excellent just the ending ruins all of that ,so the 8 I've given is for all of the film apart from the last 5 mins which kind of bring the film down to a 1damn i hate the ending!!.
It had some good things going one, like for instance it was a bit short and it had Robin Williams who is a good enough actor to save a movie from being a total disaster (or sometimes the other way around, but that's another story).
Intriguing concept hodgepodge about the near-future with a grim Williams cast as a 'cutter', a state-of-the-art editor of sorts who cuts together home movie type eulogies for those who have passed that were implanted with a recording device of their entire lives' diaries leads to a conflict of interest when he is asked to take the case of a recently deceased magnate to the technology at hand with some skeletons rattling in his closet, leading to some sins of Williams' Alan Hakman (a very apropro surname though not as subtle as the proceedings at hand).
Robin Williams seems to play his non-comedic roles as pathetic rather than dramatic, and the "cutter" here portrayed, who edits people's life-recording chips after their death, was quite similar to the character in "One-Hour Photo." This time instead of being attracted to (or at least fascinated by) children, he is haunted by a recurrent and traumatic childhood memory.
Instead of using the normal video technology, people insert a "chip" into their heads so that when they die, a "cutter" composes a movie from their lives.Can you imagine a more ridiculous and degrading event: your relative died, you're sad and grieving, but subject yourself to watching a melodramatic representation of his/her whole life in two hours?
Lebanese writer-director Omar Naïm's debut feature drops an intriguing, provocative premise: in the future, a memory chip can be implanted at birth and record a person's entire life experience, edited after death into a memorial film by a "cutter", described by one character as "part taxidermist, part priest and part mortician" for his ability to absolve the sins of the dead while presenting to the world a perfect facade.
Robin Williams plays the appropriately named Alan Hakman, one such cutter, who finds in an editing job an image that sends him back to a childhood trauma and leads him directly into the moral quandaries involved in recording and editing memories that he had always shied away from.
So many plot holes, so many undeveloped characters it made my head hurt trying to think about it.The concept of the movie is great, as a story which you 'could' do something with in a Isaac Asimov kinda way...
***SPOILERS*** The late Robin Williams gives an eerie performance as a future micro or Zio-Implant chip cutter or director Alan Hakman who used the implanted microchips that a person has planted into their brain at birth.
The idea is when the children die, a cutter (Robin Williams) can movie edit out the most sentimental parts to display during the funeral, which presumably the parents wont live to see anyway.There were a lot of silly things about this movie, although I must admit I took away the interesting proposition that sometimes even our strongest recollections may not actually be the way things happened.
Robin Williams is Alan Hackman, a 'cutter' with the job of editing a person's memory down to a few highlights to be played at the funeral.
A strong concept(technology that is implanted in the brain that records every experience and memory of the individual,which can be in turn used to create a sort of film as a summation or "tribute" to the individual's life) and some solid acting from Robin Williams(in particular) makes this movie very watchable.
Add to that the fact that I think the film under-uses Mira Sorvino and Jim Caviezel,two very worthy and compelling actors,and it does seem somewhat wanting.Still,a compelling piece of film work that is nicely filmed(credit the director Omar Naif--is that the right spelling?) and edited and definitely worth a look,provided you're up for some heavy meditation on the nature of human memory..
"The Final Cut" is an interesting Sci-Fi, starring Robin Williams in the leading role, that of a "cutter", namely a sort of "mortician" as his girlfriend(?), played by Mira Sorvino, names him at one moment.
In the future you can see inside people's memories.Robin Williams plays a cutter called Alan W.Hakman, whose job is to edit the highlights of the deceased persons' lives.Then he sees a face from the past in one memory implant, a man he thought died when they were children.This particular implant is also wanted by certain people and his life is in danger.There's also a lady called Delila, played by Mira Sorvino,involved in the story.Omar Naim's The Final Cut (2004) is a real neat sci-fi thriller.Robin Williams is excellent as the troubled cutter.This actor-comedian, who turns 57 today, has starred many memorable movies.Mira Sorvino is wonderful as Delila.I would have liked to see more of her.Jim Caviezel is great playing Fletcher.This movie has a lot of good.The future that is portrayed there is fascinating.If we look at the possibility...the world where we would have memory implants, I'm sure people would go protesting in the streets.Just like they do in this movie.Let's hope this will not be our future..
The idea of having some kind of chip recording all our memories so that others could remember us through them is not only morally controversial, but it also raises important questions about our place in the world and how we perceive it.However, despite all the very relevant issues this premise could raise, The Final Cut goes in a totally diffente path, losing itself in conspiracy theories and thriller-like subplots that make this movie totally irrelevant and not at all worth remembering.It makes me sad to think that this script could have been a completely different film in the hands of a director like Michel Gondry or even Richard Kelly..
Robin Williams as Alan Hakman, (love that character name for a man that does cutting!) is a great strength of this movie.
but I don't think he made a good choice by choosing to act in The Final Cut. Personally, I thought it was a pretty dumb movie.
The ideas presented are unique to me, the sets and cinematography are innovative.The whole concept of seeing through someone else's eyes is fascinating (and one I have contemplated many times over.) In one portion of the movie, one man questions whether Robin's character changed the color of a boat in his brother's "rememory" to green.
This is the subject of Omar Naim's film The Final Cut.Robin Williams plays Alan Hakman, a "cutter" by trade who takes people's memories and makes them into rememories, or a little movie using the deceased's own memories.
A wannabe thriller with a fantastic premise sinks under its own weight, complete with overacting, a muddled plot, and a clichéd script.Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) is a cutter, responsible for editing the recorded video of people's lives (they've been implanted since birth with a recording device) into an upbeat, hero-building "Rememory" for surviving loved ones to enjoy.
"The Final Cut" is yet another film with a dark, thriller, mystery edge that Robin Williams does an excellent job acting in.
After their death, the memory chips can be retrieved and a movie can then be made by the memory chip editors called "cutters" who Robin Williams plays.
Directors of photography, editors, cinematographersThen came Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, Jim CaviezelIt doesn't matter if then it wasn't enough, or if the movie wasn't great (it isn't), they all lived the experience, and most importantly, Naim did.A man in his 20's, capable of taking the direction in his own thingRemarkable.
He added a lot of drama into the whole film, with a nostalgic beginning, and then threw us into the cutting world, and into the best cutter (Alan Hakman) life.
Robin Williams plays a "cutter" who takes the recorded life histories of deceased men and women implanted with a memory chip in the womb and pieces together a moving scrapbook of personal memories for loved ones to watch at the memorial service.