Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Bill Chambers)
Date: 24 Sep 1997 22:50:47 GMT

GATTACA ** (out of four)

starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law
written and directed by Andrew Niccol

How I wanted to love Gattaca. From its bizzare opening credit
sequence, in which we see nail clippings and stubble fall to a neon
blue ground in slow motion, we know we're in store for unusual
Hollywood fare. But as with many directorial debuts (Niccol was given
a chance to direct based on the originality of his screenplay),
Gattaca falls short not in ambition but in execution.

Hawke stars as Vincent, a custodian in "the not so distant future",
who dreams of becoming an astronaut. High hopes, indeed, for in this
future births are genetically manipulated to help conceive "perfect"
children, and our naturally birthed hero has both myopia and a heart
condition which prevent him from becoming anything more than a
second-class citizen. "In the future, discrimination has come down to
a science," he intones in (seemingly endless) narration.

Enter Jerome (Law), a "valid" citizen recently left paralyzed from a
car accident. He'll assist Vincent by donating his perfect blood and
perfect urine for a price, a price which the desperate janitor gladly
accepts. A few months later, Vincent, now calling himself Jerome, is
an eager executive of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, welcome in
the rooms he was once only allowed to sweep. But when the Mission
Director's murder coincides with "Jerome"'s promotion to astronaut,
Vincent worries in the act of investigation his true identity may be
uncovered.

To his credit, Niccol sets about telling his complex story in a simple
manner, with emphasis on emotions and not science. But said story is
also repetitive, clicheed, and a romantic subplot between Vincent and
Irene (Thurman) is oddly unerotic and unsentimental. Yes, they're
essentially clones, but they're not robots! It doesn't help that Uma
Thurman is weightless as an actress, upstaged by her own beauty.  The
most effective performance comes from Law, who in a few broad strokes
creates a realistic, sympathetic, tragic figure worthy of a better
film.

And, while no plot string is left untied, there are too many endings
and pat resolutions. More often than not lately I find myself wanting
a film to finish twenty minutes before it does (Ransom is a perfect
recent example), and Gattaca is no exception. Though I will have fond
memories of Michael Nyman's lovely score, some of the production
design, and the performances of Ethan Hawke and Jude Law, I will
always recall Gattaca as having, like its main character, too many
flaws to be taken seriously.

-by Bill Chambers

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