7/17/2012

"Living other´s lives"

Title: The Final Cut
Year: 2004
Genre: C. Fiction, Thriller
Director: Omar Naim
Writer: Omar Naim
Runtime: 104min
Cast: Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, Jim Caviezel, Mimi Kuzyk, Stephanie Romanov, Michael St. John Smith
Produc.: Lions Gate Entertainment, Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG, Industry Entertainment, Final Cut Productions

In The final cut, in a world where memories are retained by memory implants, Alan Hakman is a cutter specialized in compressing thousands of hours of material to only reduced segments, once we have died.
Sometimes a film goes unnoticed. What ends up being a real injustice, if the argument had been good, as in the case of director Omar Naim, who would have to be satisfied with only four weeks in the theaters.
In October of 2004, this is what would happen with the latest of Robin Williams, who personified Alan Hakman, a cutter of other lives memories. Something very, very delicate.
The film took us into an imaginary reality, where only some, those who could afford it, would have the access to memory implants, invention developed by the program Zoe, whose function was to record everything captured by our eyes, since our birth until our death. Hence, that the big question here were of an ethical issue.
Coexist all life with a sort of chip, device, or whatever one wish to call it, had initially got a fairly useful purpose. When we died, the implant would be delivered to a cutter (in this case, Robin Williams), who, from his editting room would see the material, would select what believed to be more enjoyable and appropriate, and delete everything else. The chosen selection would be projected at the funeral´s "rememorial", a couple of hours screening, where those present would see the deceased loved one, to remember him in the best way.
The idea in itself, did not appear to be bad. Attending to a relative or friend´s velatory, in a moment when we were wrecked, and suddenly see him laughing one last time. To enjoy the best of his childhood, adolescence or adulthood. All very nice.
But none of this took away, that the experiences recorded in the chip would no longer be personal. Whatever we did, from the most trivial to the least, or even the most horrible things, everything would be, in the end, a great movie to be seen by a cutter, who have to avoid any kind of value judgment and never speak up about it. The question here, then would be, with what right?
If the deceased had been, for example, a murderer or a rapist, it would just be enough to push a button to dismiss all the evidence, thereby creating a false image of someone who would be remembered, not for what he had been, but for what would be seen in the lie of his montaje.
In the film, Mira Sorvino would be Delila, and Jim Caviezel, Fletcher. She would work to Allan as an emotional support, and he, as a problem. Of Delila could be added, that we missed to know more about her character. About Fletcher, just that, he is who would endeavor to purchase the latest implant obtained by Alan, corresponding to some Charles Bannister (Michael St. John Smith), a deceased offender.
Finally, it could be emphasized, that while it has been a quite original concept, the story written by Omar Naim has a small inconsistency. Since the chip keeps such long records, it is intriguing how a cutter might be able to see all this stuff in such a short notice, before a funeral. A mistake that, although takes away some realism to the plot, it is more convenient to ignore it and give the approval to the director,  given his attempt.
As a curiosity, only to say that this would be the second of Robin Williams´s forays in the science fiction genre, in a feature film, but, above all, touching controversial matters. He had earlier been an extraterrestrial in the serie Mork and Mindy (1978-1982), but this, being a comedy. However, his previous dramatic work, also on issues in dispute, had been the 1999, Chris Columbus flick, Bicentennial Man, where Williams was a robot.

My rating: 7/10


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