The Final Cut (DVD)

...in an undetermined year in the future, Hakman (Robin Williams) is a cutter, employed to edit memory implants (Zoe implants) after people have died in order to create a remembering (like a DVD of the dead persons life as seen through their own eyes). The chips are implanted before birth, are organic and grow with the person so you don't know you have one.

The story starts with a flashback to 2 children playing, they start with marbles ...
...ended with the apparent death of one of them.

Cut to the present where we see a client quizzing Hakman about a remembering of Dr Monroe that he is working on. We learn at this point that Hakman is editing out all the nasty memories (wife beating and adultery in this case) and just leaving in the nice things that people want to see of their loved one.

At the screening of this particular remembering Fletcher (James Caviezel), ... more

Set in an undetermined year in the future, Hakman (Robin Williams) is a cutter, employed to edit memory implants (Zoe implants) after people have died in order to create a remembering (like a DVD of the dead persons life as seen through their own eyes). The chips are implanted before birth, are organic and grow with the person so you don't know you have one.

The story starts with a flashback to 2 children playing, they start with marbles but end up in a disused factory and their games ended with the apparent death of one of them.

Cut to the present where we see a client quizzing Hakman about a remembering of Dr Monroe that he is working on. We learn at this point that Hakman is editing out all the nasty memories (wife beating and adultery in this case) and just leaving in the nice things that people want to see of their loved one.

At the screening of this particular remembering Fletcher (James Caviezel), an ex-cutter, turns up and tries to buy a job from Hakman. Fletcher has become disillusioned by the job and wants to expose an executive from EYE who developed the technology in the hope of discrediting the whole process.

It seems $500,000 dollars isn't enough to persuade Hakman to hand over the job and he starts to edit out implied child molestation from Bannisters (his current job) life. While editing he notices a face he recognises from his past at a party that Bannister was throwing. Now we realise that the 2 boys in the flashback at the beginning of the film were this man and Hakman. Hakman seems to have been driven to live out his life through the eyes of others, editing the bad things because he feels so guilty about what he believes to have been his hand in the death of his friend.

Spoilers below
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Fletcher continues to put the pressure on Bannister to hand over the file but while Hakman is researching his childhood friend he stumbles across a file which shows that his parents had him implanted with the 'remembering' technology.

There are 3 rules for cutters and one of them is that they can not have an implant themselves, I imagine this is so that others life's can't be watched again through their eyes when they die.

Hakmans girlfriend (Mira Sorvino) finds a disc of memories from her deceased ex boyfriend in Hakmans editing machine and in a fit of rage destroys part of the machine & Bannisters memory chip. The pressure is now on for Hakman and Fletcher, the only way they can watch the footage now is a dangerous procedure, which can not be recorded only watched, or for Hakman to die.

Hakman asks his friends for help remembering about the day when his friend died & learns that he had remembered it all wrong, his friend didn't die & he had tried to help him. He feels relief after seeing this but it hasn't helped get Fletcher off his case.

Fletcher chases him through a graveyard while he is paying respect to his finally dead (of old age) friend & his henchman kills him.

The film finishes with Fletcher editing the child molesting scene (you don't see anything, its all implied) and thinking aloud that Hakman is going to be remembered for helping society and setting the record straight.

Opinion
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This isn't really sci-fi other than the idea that you can implant organic chips and watch video of memories, the cars and houses just look like 20th century cars & houses. The editing machine looks very artificial & the images look obviously superimposed rather than as if the image is playing on it like a television.

The Scenes between Hackman and his girlfriend are very hollow, there doesn't feel to be any spark between them and as such you don't get to know her very well, I felt she was only in the film as a plot trigger to destroy the chip. . This goes for most of the characters in the film, Williams being the only person who gets any real time spent on him.

Very similar to 1 hour photo or gattica, the other film where Williams plays a darker character who intrudes on to other peoples lives. The implant protesters posed interesting questions about the ethics of having the chips. You wouldn't have a choice about having one put in as they are done when you are a baby (or in the womb it seemed) but if you don't have one there is nothing to stop you from being in someone else's 'remembering' which was what they were worried about. Smacks me of big brother & infringements on civil liberties and not very subtly either.

Most people are told they have the implant when they reach 21 Williams parents had died before he was even a teenager, so he never found out. Some people were mentioned by the protestors who had killed themselves because of the shame about the memories they had which they didn't realise were being recorded.

The ending felt very rushed & abrupt, Fletcher editing the footage of Hakmans life but wearing the necklace of Hakmans childhood friend as if to say he would use his memory wisely and not twist the truth as Hakman himself had done with his own memories.

overall, not a bad evenings entertainment but I feel no real desire to watch it again 6/10

Cast
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Robin Williams - Alan W. Hakman ( 1 hour photo)
Mira Sorvino - Delila (summer of Sam)
James Caviezel - Fletcher (pay it forward)
Mimi Kuzyk - Thelma
Stephanie Romanov - Jennifer Bannister
Thom Bishops - Hasan
Genevieve Buechner - Isabel Bannister
Brendan Fletcher - Michael

Other Stuff
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Director - Omar Naim
Rated 12
Runtime 95 minutes (1 hour 35 minutes)
tagline- Your life wasn't what you thought it was
Quote - hakman "I forgive people long after they can be punished for their sins"

No Subtitles
1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen
Audio commentary by director Omar Naim
Making-of
Design featurette
"Special Effects" - a featurette
Deleted scene
Storyboard comparison

Price - £3.31 Amazon UK

Soundtrack
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Enchanted Days - Music and Lyrics by BRIAN TYLER

Hollow - Music written by BRIAN TYLER and MICHAEL NIELSEN
Lyrics by BRIAN TYLER, Performed by JA WAH

Sweet Remembrance - Written and Performed by WERNER DREXLER

4 Seasons/Spring - Written and Composed by VIVALDI, Performed by THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC

BulBul - Composed by ANDREW LOCKINGTON, Performed by MARYEM TOLLAR

Bye Bye - Written by WILLIAM HERMES, Performed by LIGHTIN' WILLIE and the POORBOYS

Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002 - By JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, Performed by LUCY VAN DAEL 

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