40
Striking visuals help, but pic won't make the final cut with either genre fans, who've seen it all and better before, or the arthouse crowd, who will sneer at pic's cliches.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
30
Pressing on in grimly introverted "One Hour Photo" mode, Williams only stirs nostalgia for his slapstick days (ghastly '90s roles notwithstanding)--he's such a natural-born ham he manages to overdo understatement.
30
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Cut-and-dried sci-fi thriller.
40
The movie becomes so cluttered with concept and design, it fails to get even a toehold on the humanistic subtext it's clearly reaching for. A pallid performance by Mira Sorvino, as Williams' girlfriend and advocate for the fully lived and recorded life, doesn't help.
60
Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf
A satisfyingly eerie thriller.
30
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Muddled and uninteresting.
38
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Fairly well done but deadly dull futuristic thriller.
60
Naim directs The Final Cut as if it were the pilot to a TV series: He teases the audience with all sorts of story threads, focuses on a minor self-contained mystery, and leaves the rest for future episodes that will never come.
40
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The core of the movie is a satirical political thriller that juxtaposes dual points of view that could be described in cinematic terms as "It's a Wonderful Life" versus "Chinatown." The digressions should have been pared away.