The Final Cut

I really enjoyed this tiny, tiny movie that I’m sure will do no business, and which, unfortunately, has a really weak ending. Oh, well! Robin Williams gives a very understated performance as Alan Hakman, a man who edits down the memories of the deceased into two-hour films. It seems that in the future, many people will have a sort of in-head VCR that records everything they see and hear. It is the job of "cutters" like Hakman to take those memories, delete the embarrassing, illegal and shameful parts, and create a beautiful lie about the life of the dead. The film has a mildly annoying retro-modern style (lots of wood paneling), but Williams really drags you along with his pained performance, and there’s a half-dozen great ideas here. Of course, ideas are the stock-in-trade of science fiction, but great writing is not, so there’s also some stiff dialogue. But on the whole, Final Cut is more good than bad, and it’s a nicely different. This is writer/director Omar Naim’s first feature, and it promises good things from him in the future.