Sin Eating

I recently saw The Final Cut, an indie scifi film starring Robin Williams. Jim Caviezel also appears in it. Yep, the actor who played Jesus in the Passion.

First, I've got to say that I generally don't like Robin Williams. That "i'm from another place/country/world/planet therefore my humor and insights about all things earthly and American thing can get a bit old and arrogant.

But it turns out that I like him in indie flicks. I even liked him in One Stop Photo.

Well, The Final Cut is about a world where memory chips are placed in people's heads when they are children. Not everyone has these chips, just a few. These chips record everything a person does or is involved with....and when the person dies, all that they have seen, known, experienced, can be classified, edited, and recut. The edited memories are even placed on their owners' tombstones.

Ah, this is where the issue of truth comes in! And also the issue of who is the editor, and how he decides to edit what he sees. Other questions about memory also pop up. It's a good little plot and although a bit of a downer in the end, it worked for me.

But while I was watching it the main character Mr Hakman describes himself as a sin eater. Someone who sees all the sins folks have committed and who destroys them so the good remain.

That got me thinking.

Last year Fox Faith films did a movie called The Sin Eater. I wonder if both these films could make a Christian movie night double feature. They might. Stories of sacrifice for the good of all, stories of what to do with memory, guilt, sin, knowledge of other folks' sins. They both come at the questions in different ways.

The trouble however is that The Final Cut doesn't have that gooey slice-of-life nostalgic feel many Christian films have. I don't know why Christian filmmakers often like to do little nostalgic pieces but they do. The Final Cut is urban, urbane, and somewhat bleak. Christian movie makers don't like darkness or bleakness. Still it would be a nice double feature, i think...and some church has to try to.