Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Ernest Lilley)
Date: 28 Oct 1997 00:18:39 GMT

SFRevu Goes to the Movies: GATTACA

British filmmaker Andrew Niccol wanted to make a film longer than 60 
seconds. With the release of GATTACA, billed by Columbia Pictures as a 
"science fiction thriller", he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. 
Alas. Not only is GATTACA longer than a minute, its pacing appears to 
stretch the time spent watching the movie like some relativistic time 
dilation.

Ethan Hawke (EXPLORERS, DEAD POET'S SOCIETY, REALITY BITES) plays 
Vincent, a child conceived out of love and good intention, into a 
society where conception is a matter of careful genetic screening and 
manipulation. Although he escapes the intervention of the pre-natal 
geneticist, at the moment of his birth he receives his sentencing as a 
drop of his blood is read into sequence analyzers to be interpreted like 
the entrails of a sacrificial fowl. Damned by a litany of probable 
shortcomings, including a tendency towards violence and an expected 
coronary failure by age 30, Vincent is a willful weakling, ever in the 
shadow of his genetically flawless brother, the product of his parents' 
recantation of nature and society's taste for gene tailoring. 

Though the odds are on the genetically perfect, Vincent possesses that 
popular element of classic SF - the indomitable spirit, manifested in 
the desire to become an astronaut. Specifically a "Navigator Third 
Class" on the upcoming first mission to Titan, a role that none but the 
most genetically pure could be considered for. Vincent may not be 
perfect, but he never accepts his limitations. Through a very special 
broker he finds a member of the genetic elite who has suffered a 
crippling injury and assumes his identity through a bizarre symbiosis 
where the cripple, Jerome (Jude Law) provides him with a name and enough 
body waste and clippings to fool the genetic scanners at the GATTACA 
space agency. Why they call it GATTACA is one of the film's little 
mysteries. Nobody ever says. Vincent, now Jerome, rises to the top of 
the organization and reaches out to accept the coveted space on the 
Titan mission.

When the agency's director is beaten to death with a keyboard and the 
entire organization is subjected to increased scrutiny, Jerome/Vincent's 
deception becomes even more fragile. At the same time he falls in love 
with Irene (Uma Thurman - BATMAN AND ROBIN, PULP FICTION), despite the 
androgynous 1940s business suits that everyone wears. Will he manage to 
avoid the murder investigation and join the Titan mission? Will Irene 
lose her flawed heart to Jerome/Vincent? Will this movie ever end?

A remarkable cast assembled to create this deadpan dystopia. Alan Arkin 
plays a future Colombo on the killer's trail. Gore Vidal is the Mission 
Director who has devoted his life to the exploration of space, Ernest 
Borgnine (Borg-9? Any relation to Seven of 9?) is a janitor whose role 
in the film is only hinted at. His real contribution to the film is 
lying, I suspect, on the editing room floor.

Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this bit of supposedly serious SF, but 
I suspect that he's never read SF and is a bit put off by it. Mr. 
Niccol's future is as devoid of trappings of technology as he could make 
it. The only science evident exists in black boxes that pop up pictures 
of the owners of whatever bit of hair, skin or spittle is fed into them. 
Evenings are spent in classic smoke filled salons in formal evening wear 
and "hovercraft and epaulets" have been strictly banned from the set. 
Mr. Niccols has taken it on himself to reinvent Science Fiction by 
removing the techno-glitter from Sci-Fi and creating the world in a 
retro-classic image. Although the cast praised his vision, comments by 
the writer/director are conspicuously absent from the studio's press 
kit. His moral message of the inadequacy of class distinction is 
delivered with little enthusiasm, and less plausibility. Yes, it is a 
frightening prospect that testing may reveal so much about us that we 
never dream of challenging our proscribed limits. No, I didn't believe 
that Jerome/Vincent could get away with it, or even that he should. 
Worse, I strongly doubt that anyone will remain interested in the film 
long enough to come to their own conclusion. Even if you were to remove 
the minute traces of SF from the film it would teeter shakily on its 
underpinnings of Mystery and Romance. If studios cannot bear the thought 
of turning to authors of SF for good SF scripts, they should stick to 
Sci-Fi SFX extravaganzas.

If GATTACA is the Science Fiction Drama of the year, 'tis a lean year 
indeed.

reviewed by: Ernest Lilley - SFRevu
http://members.aol.com/sfrevu