Review of Final Cut (1993) by Chris C — 20 Mar 2008

[font=Arial]It's fascinating to see a new filmmaker that you can almost tell has a great future ahead of him. Omar Naim is such a filmmaker. His movie, The Final Cut, is a science fiction film that looks into the realms of recording the audio-visual stimuli of the brain.

The movie suggests that this is for what seems to be the sole purpose of honoring said person's life after death. Am I the only person that sees what other uses such an inplant could be used for, such as making the perfect undercover operative or spy. And I haven't even pulled out my Orwellian handbook yet. There are protesters to this technology, but not for reasons mentioned above. This movie seems to want to only look at this from a pseudo-religious perspective (which is all fine and dandy), then go into a tail-spin at the very end.

Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) is a "cutter" (a technician who splices the feed from the ZOE brain implants to make rememories for wakes) and one of the few who never lets his private life interfere with his professional one (because he doesn't have the former). The way he splices reminded me of a death eater (a person who takes the burden of another man's sins as his own and leaves that man sin-free as he dies), cutting out the bad and nasty things his clients do and leaving people with only the spotless version. One great scene near the beginning has Alan seeing a woman at the wake of his client being friendly with the widow, but Alan knows that this woman had an affair with the departed. Alan doesn't try too hard to have a private life. He thinks he might find one with a librarian (Mira Sorveno), but even then he doesn't try too hard. And not to mention that a very powerful man who started the ZOE implants had died and Alan is given the job. As soon as he gets this job, an ex-cutter (Jim Caviezel) offers money for the feed. He wants to find scandal to bring down ZOE. Alan refuses and things get dicey when Alan realizes a) that this man did at least one monsterous thing vaguely shown in the movie and b) that a mysterious man that shows up once in this feed might have a link into Alan's past, something that Alan wants to find some kind of closure to.

For the most part, the film dances between all of this and refuses to see the bigger picture. What it does, it does pretty well, but lacks enough scale for me to almost feel cheated. Technology isn't limited to it's intentions. The person that split the atom didn't expect it to create the most destructive weapon on the planet. Not to mention that the company who designs these things have advertisements all over the place. Talk about morbid! At one point, we find out that parents actually took out a loan to get a ZOE. A loan for a video feed that will be cut down to an hour and a half? The film needs a recut and a few scenes needed to be added to put some scale into this world. And the ending needs to be redone primarily because it doesn't work.

And yet I still see the potential in Omar Naim. It's clear he can tell a story, if only he can expand on his ideas and make his worlds feel lived in. He commands some great shots and has his editing down pat. He chose wisely with getting the legendary Tak Fujimoto as his Director of Photography, is able to make this film feel as morbid as it's tale. Just look at Alan's bedroom, which almost reminds me of a funeral parlor.

This movie's acting is subliminal in nature, neither bad nor is it good. We aren't really allowed to feel anything for them because they are all a bit morbid and don't have any real energy to show. Even Williams, who shows an energy bursting inside even when he does these more restrained characters, can't seem to find anything to play with in poor Alan. When Alan does talk about his being a sin eater (yes, the film took away my own perception of the character), I don't even see remorse or regret in his face. And yet he does want it.

Perhaps I am asking too much. But I think Naim can do a better version of this movie. And I hope he does because the idea is brilliant. Either way, I see great things in his future, this just isn't his best.[/font].