Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997)

From: James Brundage <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Jan 1999 06:47:49 GMT

Gattaca (1997)

Written and Directed by Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show)

Starring:

Ethan Hawke (Great Expectations) as Vincent Freeman / Jerome Morrow

Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction) as Irene Cassini

Alan Arkin (Grosse Point Blank) as Investigator Hugo Coldspring

Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley) as Jerome Morrow / Eugene Morrow

Loren Dean (The End of Violence) as Investigator / Aton Freeman

Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line) as Antonio

As Reviewed by James Brundage

We're all becoming Orwells. Hollywood, me, you, the Internet, everyone is
becoming in a constant state of surveillance. It's a trend. Enemy of the
State and The End of Violence use it. The Truman Show, Dark City,
Pleasantville. All of them used it. And, as good as any one of those films,
Gattaca uses it.

Gattaca is a character drama in the guise of a thriller, the same way that
The Truman Show was a drama in the guise of a comedy. Andrew Niccol works
his beautiful charms with both of them. In Gattaca, he offers us a stunning
vision of the not-so-distant future, a time where genetic engineering is so
commonplace that it is common practice. The world, of course, has the
drawback that anyone who was not genetically engineered is part of a new
class of society, called an invalid.

Vincent Freeman was born this way. He chooses, however, not to remain and
invalid but become what is known as a de-generate, someone who uses other
people's blood, urine, hair etc. to fake a genetic code superior to their
own. His dream was to end up in space and being this particularly loathed
thing is the only way he is able to do it. Lending his dream to the real
Gerome Morrow, a suicidal cripple, the two band together to get him into
space. Everything is going well, he is set to leave in a week. Then the
mission director is murdered.

This occurs, in my opinion, only to keep less intelligent viewers interested
in the story, which contains enough pathos to warrant me watching it if it
didn't involve a murder at all. As Vincent tries to keep his secret, he is
falling in love with Irene Cassini, another worker at Gattaca, the story's
equivalent of Cape Canaveral. The panic caused by the moment causes each
person involve to examine themselves, society, and the state of the world.

The sad thing about Gattaca is that so many people will hate this movie
because of its utterly slow pace. It does not keep the interest of someone
not intrigued by people, which encompasses most every viewer today. So that
takes out studio fans, and its Star Trek target audience. Everyone else,
including you indie lovers, should tape it the next time it airs on HBO,
though.

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