The Final Cut |  | Director: Omar Naim
Actors: Robin Williams, James Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Mimi Kuzyk, Stephanie Romanov
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
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Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 23437
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: LGED16965D
UPC: 031398169659
EAN: 0031398169659
ASIN: B00079HZOS
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: March 22, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In a future world where humans are implanted with chips that record their every memory, Alan Hackman, a cutter whose job it is to remove the chips and edit them postmortem for commemorative ceremonies, is troubled by information he learns while cutting th
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 9-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com
While it works better as a somber mood piece than a futuristic thriller, The Final Cut posits a unique what-if scenario that some viewers will find fascinating. In a role that calls for his low-key One Hour Photo persona, Robin Williams plays an expert "cutter" who's in demand for his ability to distill anyone's lifetime into a feature-length "rememory" film that highlights the better side of anyone's nature. His profession is made possible by the "Zoe" chip, a prenatal brain implant capable of recording a person's entire lifetime--a technology opposed by a former cutter (Jim Caviezel) and puzzled over by Williams' on-and-off girlfriend (Mira Sorvino). First-time writer-director Omar Naim divided critics with his impressive visual style and lackluster screenplay, which fails to account for the larger implications of the Zoe chip's exploitation. Still, the film contains several intriguing ideas that place it among other sci-fi films like Gattaca, suggesting one of the many potential controversies that await us in a future where ethics and technology are not always compatible. --Jeff Shannon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 87
 Close to Reality August 10, 2009
Martin Asiner (Jersey City, NJ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In FINAL CUT, director Omar Naim presents a not too distant future that features a technology that gives the film its dramatic impetus. When a child is born, his/her parents can opt for a pricey implant, called a Zoe, which fits in the child's head and will record every second of the child's life right up to the moment of death. Now this concept has a myriad of possibilities to alter society and the way that people can or dare to interact with each other. However, director Naim chooses to avoid these wider psycho-social implications to focus on a standard thriller of industrial espionage. This tightening of focus works since Naim wanted to entertain the viewer without morphing the film into a "message" medium that might have emerged as insufferably pedantic. Robin Williams is Alan Hakman, whose job is to edit or "cut" a lifetime of memories into a handy movie-length summary suitable for viewing at funerals. I was mildly surprised that no one in the movie seemed to find a use for such an implant. Each person would be an infallible lie detector. Juries would have no trouble assessing a defendant's guilt. Hakman works under enormous pressure. There are many protestors who violently oppose what he does on moral grounds. The several vignettes that show these protestors reminded me of leftists who think nothing of violating the rights of others with curses and beatings to exercise their own rights of free expression. Further, Hakman daily has to edit out the unsavory aspects of his deceased client, thus forcing him to see evil up close and personal, and then delete the offending scene only to have to go home to wrestle with his conscience. Williams portrays Hakman as a tightly wound up individual who has his own demons of memory to contend with. Mira Sorvino is his lover who cares for him but only just so far since his job erects a massive wall of social static that bars true intimacy. Jim Caveziel is a former "cutter" who tries to strongarm Hakman into giving him access to a recorded memory that if exposed will topple the entire industry of re-memorizing.
FINAL CUT uses a constant series of claustrophobic scenes that intensify the torment that is right there on the viewing screen of a recorded memory. The technology involved does not seem that far fetched, but viewer interest does not lie in that. We watch movies like FINAL CUT because it is full of quirky characters, none of whom is truly evil, but all of whom are torn in deciding what is right, not what is the path of least resistance. FINAL CUT forces us to conclude that life's precious memories must not be hawked for sale, but deserve a silent and private contemplation that has no place for a public forum.
The shape of our memories June 16, 2009
R. Kyle (USA)
In the future, no one wealthy enough to afford a Zoe implant will be able to forget. With the Rememory Project and the Zoe Ocular Implant, every memory a person has is stored.
Cutters, like Alan Hackman (Robin Williams) take these stored images and create a life-tape of the person's memories for the family to immortalize the decedent. Obviously, these memories require some editing -- and some more than others. As the group of protesters say, "You take murderers and turn them into saints."
When Hackman gets a controversial job, he sees a man in the memories of another than he needs to find and ends up uncovering more about the job and himself than he ever cared to. This is a fascinating look at people's lives, particularly the man who assembles their memorials.
Rebecca Kyle, June 2009
 Be sure your sins will find you out. April 16, 2008
Joel Munyon (Joliet, Illinois - the poohole of America.)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) has the world's worst job. Set in the future, he operates a business that is responsible for "editing" the memories of rich, dead executive-types who's families want their memories to digitally be replayed during their funeral ceremonies. Some offer as much as $500,000 to Hakman for his services, and the sum of money is typically predicated on just how many skeletons the recently expired loved-ones had in their overpriced closets, and just how good a job he does at "cutting" those memories.
Hakman is himself no saint. A tragedy from his own childhood still haunts him and drives him to border-line paranoia. He is unsure of how this past episode actually happened, but is quite certain he was directly responsible for the incident, at least in his own mind. When Hakman discovers that one of his clients has hired him to erase certain memories of her dead husband in order to essentially expunge his dark involvement with their pre-teen daughter, Hakman's own personal ghosts come howling back to confront him and besiege him with questions on whether he should continue to dissolve certain memories of these shady dead men in order to continue making a living by splicing their memories and making them appear almost saintly.
This was a completely original and very entertaining film. Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino co-star. I recommend this film to anyone desiring an original plot with a highly-engrossing storyline.
Eerie...and mesmerizing February 22, 2008
J. Don Le Couteur (CA Desert)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's difficult for me, even after all this time and the evidence of such films as One Hour Photo, The Fisher King, and so forth to get it into my head that Robin Williams is not so much a 'comedian' as he is a consumate actor capable of portraying 'on the edge' characters. His portrayal as the disturbed and disturbing Cutter (one who edits the organic tape memories of a person's entire life for presentation to loved ones after that person's death)in The Final Cut is nothing short of awe-inspiring. As usual with most of his (serious)movies, you're going to be left with more questions than answers, more doubt than certainty. The supporting cast, all reduced to mere cameo roles by director Omar Naim, truly do support Mr. Williams' portrayal of a character one unfortunately must acknowledge is not too far off in our future. I doubt I'll ever watch this movie again, and I'm damned glad I didn't miss it.
 Not Quite January 30, 2008
Erik Anderson (Juneau, AK USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie was fairly interesting, but I wasn't too impressed.
The acting was decent enough, that's not what I was bothered by. I kept feeling like everything was so abrupt and there was no flow to the story.
I ended up finishing it, but I remember thinking a few times during it that I could turn if off and wouldn't be too upset for having missed it.
I wouldn't highly suggest this movie, but I could see it becoming like a "cult classic" because the premise of it is so interesting. It just didn't get tied together into a story that sucked you in.
= EK
Showing reviews 1-5 of 87
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