Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997)

From: David Sunga <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Oct 1997 04:26:21 GMT

Review: Gattaca (1997)
Rating: 3.0 stars  (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0  stars 	Debatable
2.5 stars	Some people may like it
3.0 stars	I liked it
3.5 stars	I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0  stars	I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
*********************************
A Movie Review by David Sunga

Directed by:
Andrew Niccol

Written by:
Andrew Niccol

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Loren Dean, and Alan Arkin

Ingredients: 
Futuristic corporate world where genetics determines promotion,
impersonator who bucks the system, girlfriend, murder 

Synopsis:
In a world which lacks emotion or real relationships, Vincent (Ethan
Hawke), a nearsighted young man with a heart condition, dreams of being
selected for a manned space mission. Unfortunately, Vincent lives in a
futuristic world with a rather cruel social system - - where society is
based completely on DNA testing. The world is robotic, cold fish, and
corporate; well-dressed crowds of people file behind desks in long,
neutral office rooms after going through a series of DNA detection
machines. In order to accomplish his astronaut dream, normal guy Vincent
impersonates someone genetically perfect, since only genetically
enhanced people can get white collar jobs.

As the movie starts, Vincent is only moments from being selected for the
space mission of his dreams. He's wearing a dark suit, and everyone
calls him Jerome. Through a flashback and voice narration Vincent
explains to us that he is not really Jerome. He is an imposter who is
impersonating Jerome. He has risen through the ranks with the help of
the real Jerome (Jude Law), a wheelchair-bound genetically enhanced
person who is bitter at the system. (When an accident left him paralyzed
and no longer elite, Jerome soon found he didn't like the system.) To
spite the system, Vincent and Jerome have joined forces in an elaborate
charade. Vincent has been impersonating Jerome, while Jerome has been
supplying the blood, urine, fingernail and hair clippings, etc. needed
in order to fool DNA testing. If they can manage the charade for just
one more week, Vincent will accomplish his dream of participating in a
manned mission to one of Saturn's moons.

Unfortunately, when one of the directors at Vincent's workplace is
murdered and police are crawling all over the facility, all it takes to
discover Vincent and Jerome’s secret is an eyelash, a hair, a touched
door handle, a print on a glass or a bit of saliva in the wrong place.
Soon the innocent Vincent (in his guise as Jerome) is implicated in the
murder, and the charade becomes a matter of life and death. 

How long can they maintain the charade?

Opinion:
New Zealander Andrew Niccol both wrote and directed this film. This is
his directorial debut.

This film is a suspenseful, intelligent science fiction piece whose main
theme is impersonation (i.e. the film is not about romance, action, or
solving a murder). The setting of the story is a rather robotic future,
but despite the setting's lack of emotional warmth, it fascinates
because the genetic situation appeals to our real life fear of the
consequences of genetic tampering on society. 

'Gattaca' keeps our attention with good old fashioned suspense, and the
fear that the hero might be discovered at any time is with us all the
away until the final 10 minutes of the movie. A subplot of the film is
Vincent's romance with Irene (Uma Thurman). Here, too, the romantic
element isn't emphasized but serves as another way the charade might be
discovered; the charade makes the movie.

On the negative side, the last 10 minutes of the film include a scene
with a swim contest that doesn’t really matter, and an underplayed scene
where Vincent sees a doctor before the movie ends. These last few
minutes could probably be sharpened and improved by cutting out the swim
contest entirely and hyping the suspense music on the doctor scene
before the movie ends. 

I like the movie because of its underlying questions.

Reviewed by David Sunga