Final (2001)

"...engrossing and thought-provoking.  Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News
"...keeps the audience off guard.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"A surprisingly effective, off-beat little movie.  Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle

Editor's Note A solemn, quietly upsetting story about a man suffering from amnesia and paranoia who suspects he is part of a scientific government experiment in an apocalyptic near future, FINAL is a sad and moving unsolvable puzzle. Bill (Denis Leary) wakes up in a small room with a mind full of partial memories and a body suffering deteriorated motor skills. He gazes out the locked window at the Connecticut fall leaves, imagining that he sees his girlfriend, Sherry (Marin Hinkle) on the grass. Then she disappears, a mere illusion. A pretty nurse, Ann (Hope Davis), enters the high-security room, replacing Sherry's lost image, and begins psychological counseling, trying to help Bill remember what happened to him. But he is convinced that he knows what really happened--that he was in an accident, he was frozen in a cryogenic experiment, and now he is waiting to receive a final injection and be put to death. Though Ann listens to Bill and studies him as he jokes and shares memories about his mother, his father, and Sherry, his delusions make him nearly incapable of logical conversation. With a soulful blues-infused musical score, Leary and Davis deliver emotional, poetic performances, buttering up the audience for the revelatory final twist.

	Caroline Kava
	Denis Leary
	Hope Davis
	J.C. MacKenzie
	Jim Gaffigan
	Madison Arnold
	Maureen Anderman
	Campbell Scott - Director
	Dan Gillham - Director of Photography
	Andy Kier - Editor
	John Sloss - Executive Producer
	Jonathan Sehring - Executive Producer
	Caroline Kaplan - Executive Producer
	Guy Davis - Musical Score
	Steve Dunn - Producer
	Mary Francis Budig - Producer
	Gary Winick - Producer
	Alexis Alexanian - Producer
	Campbell Scott - Producer
	Bruce McIntosh - Writer

New York Times
"...The acting and direction in FINAL give it an air of quiet, dignified ambition..." 12/07/2001 p.E12

Los Angeles Times 8 of 10
In the timely and scary Final, Denis Leary gets the chance to give the major dramatic performance that one sensed he was capable of since he emerged as a comedian and actor. Leary combines unintimidating, easy to identify with looks and manner with a talent that ranges widely and deeply. He surprises us with his passion, intellect and emotion; he can be charming or menacing--or both at the same time, as is the case in Final. - Kevin Thomas