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	The Final Cut
	Omar Naim Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, James Caviezel, Genevieve Buechner, Thom Bishops, Leanne Adachi, Mimi Kuzyk, Stephanie Romanov 2004		There's an interesting conceit at the core of the thematically and visually murky sci-fi drama/psychological thriller "The Final Cut," starring Robin Williams in Oscar-luring, dour, pained mode instead of antic funnyman mode. Writer/director Omar Naim imagines a near-future world when brain implants can record all of a person's experiences for post-mortem playback. After death, high-tech memory morticians take the extracted implants and edit down the recollections of an entire life into a funeral-length feature that shows the departed in a favorable light. These embalmers of pre-recorded pasts are known as "cutters." Williams plays Alan Hakman, one of the top cutters in the business and a man plagued by memories of his own. The cutters are privy to any sordid secrets and criminal activities of their dead subjects, although a professional code decrees that ugly stuff is kept under wraps. Thus, a cutter as good as Hakman is sought out by families eager to hide the sins of their late loved ones. When Hakman learns too much about his most recent client, it sends him on a path toward career suicide, or worse. An under-developed romance between Hakman and a pleasant woman (the miscast Mira Sorvino) floats alongside the unaffecting main plot. "The Final Cut," with its life-as-a-biopic concept and its reflections on morality, privacy and mutable memory, is more intriguing than ... memorable. With James Caviezel.


	Wednesday, December 18, 2024





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