"The Final Cut" is a highly uneven movie. Its messages, its directing, its acting - all mixed in terms of quality.
Director Omar Naim, said to be the next M. Night Shyamalan, lacks the skill to pull of a trick-ending half as well as Shyamalan. While he definitely tries to surprise his audience throughout the film, the revelations are as tepid as they are expected.
Sometime in the near future Zoe Chips have become all the rage among those that can afford them. The chips, implanted at birth, record every moment of one's life. After their death, "cutters" then edit the uncut footage down to create films to be shown at the implantees funeral.
Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) has become renowned as the best "cutter" around. While editing footage one day, Hackman discovers a haunting image from his past, and embarks on a quest to unravel the mystery.
As the story unfolds, Naim attempts to surprise his viewers with plot twists that were obvious after the first 10 minutes. Jarring action segments, haphazardly spliced into the movie, add little to the plot while breaking up the flow of the movie.
Naim also has a difficult time creating suspense within the film. The score, the shots, and the plot all try to create tension but fail in doing so.
The film begins with a flashback toHakman's early life, where the mystery that attempts to sustain the plot begins. The visual clues are so obvious, however, that any attempt at a twist ending is ruined. The dramatic tension is subdued throughout the film, thus dulling the emotional connections of the characters.
One genuine shock comes from Hakman's relationship with Delila (Mira Sorvino), but their relationship, like the rest of the film, is implausible. There is no foundation in their mutual emotions; Hakman is supposed to be unfeeling and cold, a sort of curmudgeon, whereas Delila is an attractive, young woman.
What links these two? We never find out why Delila is interested in Hakman, and she quickly disappears from the film.
James Caviezel is also striking as an ex-cutter who has seen the light and is now against the Zoe Chip movement. The story lets us down again, however, never providing a compelling reason for Caviezel's character to have become an anti-Zoe fanatic.
Robin Williams is wonderful; his emotionally devoid Harkman perfectly befits a "cutter." Sorvino is also great as the typical "dumb blonde," although she does break out of her shell in one surprising scene. Caviezel , however, can't pull off the sinister character he has been cast as. His ineffective portrayal kills the emotional resonance of the climax.
Naim's film ultimately fails because of his inability to create a connection between the audience and the characters. The emotional and dramatic tension that is so apparently lacking from the film eventually becomes its biggest flaw.
While the action pieces are filmed well, they add little to the overall plot and are merely diversions from a weak plot.
In the end, "The Final Cut" proves that acting cannot carry the movie alone, even as Williams does his best to save the film. It's sad to see yet another flawed science fiction film.
