 The science fiction plot of Final Cut (2004) requires two things at which it never succeeds: 1) Robin Williams' character is supposed to be sympathetic but he comes off as a zombie -- nothing that happens to him matters one whit.
And 2) We're supposed to be hoodwinked into not noticing it would never be possible for one man to edit tens of thousands of hours of individuals' lives into the short "rememory" programs for funeral services. It takes either heroic effort or imbecility to believe this technology makes even a tiny bit of sense.
In the future, children are implanted with a recording device that records their entire life, & upon death, someone like Alan Hackman (Robin Williams as a reclusive, depressed, boring life-editor) presses the "delete" version on all one's acts of dishonesty, hostility, cruelty, murder, & rape, to create a memory-film that idealizes the dead.
 In response to this future technology there is an underground movement of rebels who have reasons to believe the technology is skanky & bad & that nobody should have to live their lives knowing their every breath & action is recorded.
The life-editors are not supposed to have implants themselves, since the parts of other peoples' lives they watch & delete would be recorded in their own implant.
But Alan was orphaned before his parents could tell him they had had him implanted. Because he is a guilt-haunted man who believes he may have accidentally killed a childhood playmate, when he discovers he has an implant, he wants to access the recording while still alive.
These elements were potentially interesting as science fiction, but as developed, this is a dull film about dull people & uninteresting events. A more exciting actor might have been able to pull it off despite the unconvincing script, but Robin Williams even at his best is a shitty overrated actor, & for this outing he decided not to act at all, playing it too depressed to register emotion.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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