Science fiction has a problem – it’s the big idea behind the story that is often better than the tale that’s told. The tantalizing trail of the implausible notion goes cold. The things that seem so interesting on the surface get boring when they are fleshed out. Everyone loves the ray gun, but no one really cares about the engineer that made it.””The Final Cut”” takes us to a dystopian time, in the not-to-distant future, where anyone who can afford it can have a Zoe implant put into their child’s head in the womb.
The Zoe device will record every second of the child’s memories. (About 1 in every 12 people has a Zoe in the future.) After death, the family can take the recorded memories, hire an editor (called a “”cutter””) to put together a single presentation to show at a memorial service, called a Rememory. On the surface this seems basic; record your memory, so that everyone has a record of your life after you’re gone. But every moment becomes a monstrosity – “”People sleeping and shitting. People stealing from each other. Manipulating each other. The obscenity, “” as one disgruntled cutter describes it. The Cutter becomes the concealer of sins, the person who knows and forgives all of the deceased sins.Robin Williams plays Alan Hakman, the best Cutter in the business. He’s the one you call when you want to show the best of the worst person; he looks at things that make other people sick. Hakman is a Cutter to help the living, and not the dead. Watching director and writer Omar Naim’s conception of how a Cutter works reflects on Naim’s experiences as a documentary filmmaker. A Cutter’s work is all about context and editing. With a whisk of the Guillotine (a giant editing bay), a child molester becomes a loving father; an abusive philanderer becomes a faithful husband. The Guillotine itself is a great piece of art direction; instead of being metal or plastic, it’s crafted out of wood, including the keyboard and buttons. The organic nature of the device is a stark contrast to the artificial constructions being crafted on it.There’s a movement against the Zoe implant, with the slogan ‘Remember for yourself!’ The group boycotts a Rememories that Hakman is running, and we meet Fletcher (James Caviziel), a Cutter who has gotten out of the business. A relative of the deceased asks Hakman if he had changed the implant’s recording of an event, since he had remembered it differently. Fletcher asks Hakman if he’s sick of the questions. We’re left wondering which is more accurate – the implant, or the ‘real memory’?There’s another theme of privacy that runs through “”The Final Cut””. How do we behave when we know we’re on camera? What does it mean that we’re being filmed constantly at any given time, without our permission? After there’s a conversation about these issues, the plot twists to cover them. Without spoiling anything, it adds to the suspense, but it still seems to be a lot of thinking out loud.Science fiction also has the problem of the futurist who wants to show us the dangers of our ways. Was “”Farenheight 451″” a really good science fiction story, or screed against censorship and consumer culture? Is “”I, Robot”” about what emotion intelligence means, or a little bit of caution about being too dependent on machines? We need dramatic tension, but a Luddite sermon on the evils of technology. Characters suffer. Robin Williams does a good job acting in “”The Final Cut””. However, there are other parts that seem like they could be better, but don’t get enough in the part. Mira Sorvino is given a part as Alan Hakman’s girlfriend, but she’s more of a plot device than a person, which is a shame. In fact, all of the actors seem not quite real, and a little wooden.Is it because Omar Naim is more interested in telling us that editing a film is more important than anything else that you can do? That we need to worry more about what’s happening with all that footage from the ATM, the grocery store, and the stairwell in your apartment building? Or that message is more important than the medium? In any case, this is a good idea that could have done better.Grade: B